A total of eleven initiatives in the fight against plastic pollution at sea were awarded prizes at an event held in the presence of HSH Prince Albert on Thursday, March 30, during Monaco Ocean Week. Described by experts as one of the major environmental challenges of our time, plastic waste threatens sea life and human health.
The Prince Albert II Foundation has been working together with the Surfrider Foundation Europe the Tara Expeditions Foundation the Mava Foundation and others to create a task force called Beyond Plastic Med (BeMed), to develop working projects to demonstrate what can be done on a regional and local level to fight this environmental menace.
Schemes from Greece, Italy, Turkey, Cyprus, Albania, Lebanon, Tunisia and Montenegro were among the winners. The Albanian project, Zero Waste Montenegro, underlines the problems facing environmentalists; logistical difficulties; a lack of resources; and obsolete technology. However, a nationwide educational campaign, training for local officials, and the organisation of a nationwide initiative to ban the use of plastic bags were the key points of the Zero Waste’s contribution to the Mediterranean effort.