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Toolkit for marine litter retention projects
February 2015
MARELITT Toolkit for marine litter projects
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. ABOUT THE TOOLKIT Pg. 01 About the guidance in this Toolkit Pg. 02 II. WHY A MARINE LITTER RETENTION PROJECT? Pg. 04
III. PLANNING YOUR PROJECT Writing your project plan Pg. 05 Your local situation Pg. 06
Objectives Pg. 08 Expected outcomes Pg. 10 Project budget Pg. 11 IV. PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
Lead organisation Pg. 13 Enlisting fishermen Pg. 14 Fishermen’s responsibilities Pg. 16 Port authorities Pg. 17
Waste management companies Pg. 18
V. IMPLEMENTING YOUR PROJECT Planning the implementation of your project Pg. 19 Litter collection Pg. 20 Litter reception Pg. 22
Recycling and disposal Pg. 23 Project communication Pg. 24
Raising awareness of marine litter Pg. 25 Monitoring marine litter Pg. 26
Complementary activities Pg. 28
VI. PROJECT MONITORING AND EVALUATION Pg. 29
VII. FUNDING FOR YOUR PROJECT Funding strategy Pg. 30 Motivation for project sponsors Pg. 31
Applying for EU funding Pg. 34 Other funding options Pg. 36
MARELITT tools:
Project plan template
Situation analysis checklist
Excel budget template for marine litter retention projects
Marine litter retention project - Leaflet template for fisherman
Letter of engagement template
Checklist for initial marine litter retention project meeting
Marine litter monitoring sheet template
Identifying EU funding options for your project – Getting started
Potential EU funding sources for marine litter projects
Photo Credits: Per-Olof Larsson; Merili Pokasaar ©Keep the Estonian Sea Tidy; Wim van Breusegem; Vasiliki Varvaki ©iStock.
I. ABOUT THE TOOLKIT
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This Toolkit is for anyone who wants to set up a marine litter retention project. You might
be an organisation, such as an NGO, a fishermen’s association or a local or regional public
organisation, or you might be an individual who is committed to setting up a project in
your local community. This Toolkit will support you in the planning and implementation of
your project. The Toolkit does not provide a single recipe for how you should develop your
project. Instead, it will point out some important issues you should think of when setting
up your project and provide advice on how to overcome problems that organisations often
face when setting up marine litter retention projects.
Marine litter retention projects are initiatives in which fishermen voluntarily bring ashore
the litter they collect in their nets during their regular fishing activities. They land the litter
in ports for treatment by a waste management company. Marine litter retention projects
differ from other marine litter projects, as they are focused on the litter that fishermen
collect during their regular activities. Other marine litter removal projects include marine
litter collection projects, during which fishermen make special purpose trips to collect
litter, and derelict fishing gear (DFG) retrieval projects, during which fishermen make
special purpose trips to retrieve DFG (which is covered by the MARELITT toolkit for DFG
projects, available for download at the MARELITT website). These projects can be
combined with other activities, such as beach cleaning, diving for litter, etc. This Toolkit
does not specifically cover these other types of marine litter projects and these additional
activities.
The Toolkit covers different steps that should be taken to set up a marine litter retention
project. These steps are suggested based on MARELITT’s assessment of good practices in
existing marine litter projects in the European Union. The Planning section of this Toolkit
focuses on the first steps you should take in planning your project, such as understanding
your local situation, defining the objectives for your project and preparing your project
budget. It also provides you with a template for the main project planning tool: your
project plan. The Project participants section helps you to engage stakeholders in your
project and describes their potential roles in the project. The Implementation section
provides practical advice on each stage of a marine litter retention project, from collecting
the litter to managing how it will be disposed of or recovered once it is returned to shore.
The Project monitoring and evaluation section sets out basic ideas on how to keep track
of your project’s results. Finally, the Funding section provides guidance on how to seek
funding and approach sponsors for your project.
The Toolkit also provides a set of tools, including templates, which you can tailor to the
specifics of your project. These tools are provided as downloadable attachments.
I. ABOUT THE TOOLKIT
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About the guidance in this Toolkit
MARELITT is an EU-funded project that was aimed at identifying and disseminating good
practices for the removal of litter and derelict fishing gear from the sea. During 2013 and
2014, the MARELITT team assessed all European marine litter retention projects (12
projects), as well as other marine litter projects. MARELITT has also supported the
initiation of new marine litter and derelict fishing gear projects in seven countries in
Europe’s four regional seas. The guidance in this Toolkit is based on the best practices
identified through the assessment of existing projects and the lessons learnt through
supporting new projects.
During 2013, the MARELITT team assessed the following marine litter retention projects:
North East Atlantic
Vuilvis Project Den Helder, led by MAIN (Maritieme Afvalstoffen Inzameling
Nederland) on behalf of the North Sea Directorate of Rijkswaterstaat (NL)
Fishing for Litter South West, led by KIMO South West (UK)
Fishing for Litter Scotland, led by KIMO Scotland (UK)
Fishing for Litter Netherlands, led by KIMO The Netherlands (NL)
Programme Macro-déchets (Aquitaine), led by the Institute of Aquatic
Environments (FR)
Contrats Bleus in Brittany, led by Ar Mor Glaz (FR)
Nada Pola Borda, led by CETMAR (ES)
Pescal (esca Sostenible Caladeros Limpios), led by CETMAR (ES)
Baltic Sea
Fishing for Litter Baltic Sea, led by KIMO Baltic Sea (SE)
Meere ohne Plastik, led by NABU (DE)
Mediterranean Sea
Contrats Bleus, Mediterranean Sea, led by F2DP (FR)
Memorandum of Understanding for Fishing for Litter (Palma Mallorca), led by San
Pedro de Palma Fishermen Association (ES)
In 2014, the MARELITT team supported the initiation of four marine litter retention pilot
projects:
I. ABOUT THE TOOLKIT
North East Atlantic
Ireland, led by the Irish Fisheries Board (BIM)
Mediterranean Sea
Croatia, led by the Centre for Marine Research
Italy, led by OLPA
Black Sea
Bulgaria, led by UBBSLA
A marine litter retention project can involve one or two ports and fewer than twenty
fishermen, or can be a region-wide project, involving a larger number of fishermen and
ports. There is no minimum size for a marine litter retention project; you can choose to set
up a small and local project or a regional one, depending on your local situation and your
resources.
II. WHY A MARINE LITTER PROJECT?
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Marine litter retention projects provide an opportunity to bring together all key
participants – fishermen, port authorities and waste management companies – to think
about solutions to integrate marine litter in the fishing ports’ waste management systems,
and in the long-term, to make it common practice.
Marine litter retention projects provide an opportunity to directly involve fishermen in the
reduction of marine litter. Fishermen are the first witnesses of the environmental harm
caused by marine litter when they catch litter in their nets. Marine litter directly impacts
fishermen’s livelihoods as it can damage fish stocks, damage fishing gear and waste the
time of fishermen in clearing nets of litter. Marine litter retention projects are an effective
way of promoting fishermen’s role as guardians of the marine environment, helping them
contribute to protecting their working environment and reducing the marine litter problem
in their fishing area.
The results of marine litter retention projects are not only about the number of tons of
litter removed from the sea – they can also encourage changes to attitudes and working
practices in the fishing industry. Marine litter projects can contribute to industry-wide
changes so that fishermen no longer routinely discard marine litter caught in their nets at
sea. This still widespread practice is mostly a result of the limited storage capacity on board
as well as the potential additional costs for specific waste receptacles and fees for landing
the litter in ports. Marine litter projects can help remove these financial and practical
obstacles that prevent fishermen from retaining marine litter on board their vessels and
discharging it in an environmentally sound manner. The projects do this by setting up an
effective waste management system in fishing ports, so that fishermen can discharge
marine litter at no additional charge to them.
Marine litter retention projects can also contribute to improved information about the
amount and distribution of marine litter without causing additional negative impacts on
the marine environment (such as additional fuel burning, additional by-catch and harm to
the seafloor that might result from dedicated information collection activities). This
improved information can help inform policy measures that aim to reduce marine litter
and to improve its management.
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III. PLANNING YOUR PROJECT
Writing your project plan
The best way to begin a project is to prepare a project plan. This will record the steps of
your project in a written document. This project plan will set out your project’s context, its
objectives, activities and required human, financial and other resources. A project plan will
help you to move your project forward by providing a timeline for your project, by clearly
defining who will do what and by making sure you stay focused on the objectives of your
project. It will also provide a clear, convincing justification for your project, and will be
indispensable for communicating with all people and organisations who will participate in
your project.
A template for your project plan is available for download. This template can be
modified according to the needs of your project. The sections below in this
Toolkit provide further detailed guidance on the project plan template.
III. PLANNING YOUR PROJECT
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Your local situation
Understanding your local situation will be the starting point for your project plan. Before
planning the tasks and activities of your project, you should have a clear understanding of
the local fishing industry, the marine litter problem and how it is currently managed in
your area. This ‘situation analysis’ will help you to develop objectives and select project
activities that allow you to meet these objectives and that fit well for the area where you
will implement your project. It will also help you to identify in advance potential obstacles
and challenges that you will be faced with in the implementation of the project. For
instance, if your situation analysis shows that there is very little awareness of marine litter
among fishermen and port authorities, awareness-raising should be an important
component of your project. If the fishing ports in your area do not have adequate waste
reception facilities that also accept marine litter, litter management will be a key issue for
your project.
A Marine Litter Retention Project Situation Analysis checklist is available for
download. This checklist will take you through the questions you should consider in
analysing your local situation. This will help to ensure you have identified the key
issues that will impact the planning or implementation of your project. Using this
checklist, you can describe and document your local project situation. You can use
the Project Situation and Need section of the Marine Litter Retention Project Plan
Template to document this situation analysis.
This analysis will include:
A description of the factors affecting the project area. These will include the marine
litter problem in your project area; the main sources of marine litter; the fishing
industry (number of vessels, type of fisheries, fishing areas, level of activity,
economic importance of the sector, etc.); the port infrastructure (relevant ports,
litter reception facilities, existing waste management practices); marine litter
initiatives already undertaken; and the policy context.
A description of the people and organisations that may have an impact on your
project. This may include a list of the relevant port organisations or managing
authorities; an overview of companies dealing with waste management at the ports
and in the area; a list of fishermen’s associations; relevant local or regional
authorities; and potential sources of funding.
You will probably need to speak to local stakeholders to gather this information. For
example, fishermen’s associations may be able to provide information on how many
vessels are registered in each port, the type of fishing method mostly applied, etc.
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III. PLANNING YOUR PROJECT
It is also important to consider any on-going or completed projects on marine litter in the
area, even if they do not deal with marine litter retention in the same way as your project
(for example, beach cleaning, diving for litter). This will help you to identify possible project
partners and sources of information. This may include relevant initiatives carried out by
your local or regional authority. Such an overview can also help you to determine the level
of awareness of stakeholders.
III. PLANNING YOUR PROJECT
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Objectives
When establishing a marine litter retention project, it is very important to define the
overall and specific objectives of your project. The objectives will give your project
a direction and will allow you to focus your efforts on your intended results. The objectives
of your project should be based on your local project situation and should be realistic given
your potential resources.
The overall objective is the broader impact to which your project will contribute. An
obvious overall objective would be “Improving the marine environment in the intervention
area by reducing marine litter.” This overall objective would also contribute to the
objective of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) of ‘achieving good
environmental status’ for Europe’s marine waters by 2020 by helping to ensure that
‘properties and quantities of marine litter do not cause harm to the coastal and marine
environment’ (MSFD Descriptor 10).
Your project might also have a number of specific objectives that will support your project
in meeting its overall objective. Your specific objectives should be SMART: specific,
measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound goals for the project. (The next section of
the Toolkit provides guidance on how you can measure your progress on the objectives for
the project.) The level of ambition of your specific objectives can vary greatly depending on
your local situation and on what you think is achievable given your research and the
cooperation of other participants in the project. For example, specific project objectives
may include:
Promoting behavioural change in the fishing sector
Your project might aim at raising the awareness of participating fishermen and
reaching as many fishermen as possible by increasing the number of vessels that
participate in the intervention area. You might aim at having fishermen’s
associations promoting marine litter retention as a good practice that may even be
integrated into an environmental management system or in a sustainable seafood
labelling or information scheme.
Achieving an effective management system for marine litter in all participating
ports
Depending on the system already in place in the fishing ports, your objective might
be to integrate marine litter in the ports’ existing management system, or to go one
step further and promote recycling of marine litter. If there are no reception
facilities in some ports, the objective can be to create a waste management system
in these ports.
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III. PLANNING YOUR PROJECT
Raising awareness of marine litter issues and reducing the impact of marine litter on
the tourism industry in the intervention area
Depending on the characteristics of your intervention area, you might conduct
awareness-raising activities targeting the sources of marine litter in the area and
the public [for more information on this, refer to the guidance on awareness-raising
in section 5].
Improving understanding of the characteristics of the marine litter problem in the
intervention area
Your project might aim to study the marine litter retained by fishermen to collect
information on sources of litter, composition, location and volumes by analysing a
sample of the marine litter that is being landed. Even though it is recognised that
marine litter retention projects can be difficult to combine with monitoring because
of their non-systematic sampling, these projects can still result in information that
can be used by policymakers and other stakeholders in developing measures to
improve marine litter management.
Throughout the project, you will need to revisit your specific objectives periodically and
measure what you have achieved. A revision of the specific objectives may be needed for
example to take into account new information, such as the emergence of additional
partners, or to match the requirements of specific funding sources. This is discussed in
more detail in the section on project monitoring (section 6).
III. PLANNING YOUR PROJECT
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Expected outcomes
Defining a set of expected results will help you to monitor whether your project is on track
to meeting its objectives – the expected results should therefore be aligned with the
project objectives. Indicators are quantitative or qualitative factors or variables that
provide a means of measuring achievement of objectives (and therefore of results). When
possible, the results should be specified using quantitative indicators as these enable
clearer targeting and tracking. If this is not practical, results can be described in a
qualitative manner. You will find some examples for indicators below as well as in the
project plan template. Targets can also be set by setting out the value for each indicator
that you expect to achieve in your project by a given point in time. Targets are often
broken down by year, and can start off quite modest and grow each year.
The list below provides examples of expected results, qualitative and quantitative
indicators that you could use in a marine litter retention project:
Expected result: Fishermen collect marine litter.
o Indicator: Number of vessels participating in the project
Target: A certain number of vessels by the end of the first year of the
project; an increased number by the end of the second year of the
project, etc.
o Vessel participation rate (calculation method: number of participating vessels
divided by total number of vessels registered in the participating ports)
Target: X % of all vessels in the intervention area participates in the
project by the end of the first year of the project, X% by the end of the
second year etc.
Expected result: Marine litter is removed from the sea.
o Indicators:
Tons of marine litter collected under the project
Tons of marine litter collected per vessel (calculation method: tons of
marine litter divided by number of vessels).
Expected result: Marine litter is managed in an environmentally sound manner.
o Indicators:
% of ML disposed of at a licensed engineered landfill
% of ML incinerated in a licensed facility with energy recovery
% of ML recycled.
Expected result: Improved knowledge of the type and location of marine litter in the
area.
Expected result: Better community awareness of the causes and impacts of the
marine litter problem in the area.
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III. PLANNING YOUR PROJECT
Project budget
The cost of a marine litter retention project will vary greatly depending on the size of the
project (number of ports and vessels participating), the communication activities
undertaken, the number of staff involved, the labour costs, the waste management system
already in place and the amounts of litter landed. The costs of the project coordinator and
waste treatment are likely to be the most significant cost items. These costs might be
covered by an in-kind contribution from your own organisation and a waste management
company that you involve, as well as from national or international grants or other funding
sources. See the section on Funding for your project (section 7) for more details on this.
An Excel template costs sheet is available for download to help you track different
types of costs, covering capital, operating and set-up costs. For each, example
types of costs and figures are given to illustrate how the template works. These
examples should be replaced with the actual cost types and amounts for the
project. By clicking on the cells in the template, you will see that many of them
contain formulas; this means numbers are calculated automatically to facilitate
the preparation of your project budget. In other cases, the value of a cell is simply
transferred to a cell in another sheet so that changes are directly reflected in all
necessary places and summary figures are adjusted (a letter-number combination
in the cell such as “B2” helps to identify these cells). If you change the structure of
the budget you will have to take this into account; you might simply delete some
of the formulas or copy them where necessary. The figures in the Excel sheet
represent a hypothetical and very simplified project – you will see that some costs
are not reflected. These figures are for illustrative purposes and you will need to
modify and adapt them according to your project.
Capital equipment: This part of the template allows for depreciation costs to be calculated
and considers whether the equipment is pre-owned or purchased for the purpose of the
project. ‘Depreciation’ allows you to calculate the loss in value of an asset, such as
equipment, over the lifetime of the asset so that these costs can be claimed as costs of
your project. If equipment is used for other purposes, the template allows you to calculate
the costs of the equipment for the time that it is dedicated to your project.
Operating expenses: These are the recurring costs that the project will have over its
lifetime. Expenses such as management staff, supplies, materials, fees, etc. are included
here. It is important to distinguish whether the amount of these costs is fixed (for example,
project management time) or variable according to the number of fishermen participating
or amount of marine litter collected (for example, the cost of waste containers (‘big bags’)
or waste management fees).
III. PLANNING YOUR PROJECT
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Set-up costs: These are one-off costs that will occur only at the beginning of the project
rather than on a regular basis. In the case of marine litter retention projects, these set-up
costs may include the extra staff working time needed during the planning of the project.
They will need to be amortised (spread) across the lifetime of the project in order to get an
accurate understanding of project costs per year. The template allows you to spread out
these costs over the course of your project.
A Summary page for total figures is provided in the Excel sheet. The costs there are copied
from the three previous worksheets accordingly.
Your project budget will be the basis for developing your funding strategy and approaching
potential project sponsors. You will find more guidance on this in section 7.
The Excel sheet referred to above sets out the cost structure of a hypothetical project running for four years. Initial set-up costs are estimated at €14,450, including staff costs and operating expenses. The subsequent annual costs are composed of staff costs (2 people, full time and part time, 1 external expert for 5 days per year: €81,900 per year), operating expenses (rental of facilities, purchase of 80 big bags per month, waste management: €29,600 per year), depreciation of capital equipment (office equipment, containers for marine litter reception: €5,270 per year) and the amortisation of set-up costs. This adds up to total project costs of €481,350 for the four-year period (€122,000 per year). As mentioned above, this hypothetical financial structure can vary substantially. One of the projects assessed by the MARELITT project reported costs of around €48,000 for one year of project duration (including promotional material, containers, waste management costs, labour costs).
IV. PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
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Lead organisation
The lead organisation establishing a marine litter retention project is usually responsible
for the day-to-day management of the project and the coordination of participants. In
general, this may require the following:
establishing a management team or coordinator
developing a project plan, including indicators and targets for monitoring and
evaluation
identifying and contacting other participants in the project
developing agreements with other project participants
identifying and securing resources for the project
sourcing and ordering supplies (bags, containers, etc.) and distributing them
developing guidelines or organising meetings for participating fishermen
recruiting fishermen to participate in the project
monitoring and evaluating project progress and results and preparing any required
reports (e.g. to funding sources or other supervisory bodies)
reflecting on the results of monitoring and evaluation reports and modifying the
project approach as appropriate.
The success of your project will depend on the daily management of the project and on
regular contact with participating fishermen, either through individual contact with the
vessels or through fishermen’s organisation. Appointing a coordinator to be responsible
for the day-to-day management of the project will help you to ensure its overall success.
Depending on the size and demands of your project, this person may be a full-time
coordinator specifically employed to manage the project. For smaller projects, the
coordinator role may only be a part-time role.
IV. PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
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Enlisting fishermen
Involving fishermen during the first planning stages of a project is key to securing their
participation throughout the duration of the project. This will help ensure that they have a
sense of ownership of the project and they are committed to participating. If you don’t
already have contacts with fisherman, making contact with local fishing associations is a
good first step. Even if you already have existing contacts with local fishermen, getting in
touch with local fishermen’s associations can help you to encourage fishermen to
participate and might extend your project to more ports.
A leaflet template that can be used to communicate with fishermen about your
project is available for download and can be tailored to your project.
When communicating with fishermen, it is important to remember that their participation
in the project is voluntary and fishermen are not financially compensated for their efforts.
You will need to focus on the potential benefits for fishermen of participating in a project
and appeal to the important role of fishermen as guardians of the sea. Discussing with
fishermen the negative impact of marine litter on their activity, their fishing ground and
more generally on the marine environment may help to engage them in the project.
Fishermen have a strong interest in reducing the impact of marine litter – marine litter can
contaminate fish stocks and damage fishing gear and nets. Their participation in the
project can also provide public recognition of the role that fishermen can play in
improving the marine environment. In some cases, participating in a marine litter
retention project might assist fishing vessels in obtaining accreditation under a sustainable
seafood certification or labelling scheme.
You can emphasise that your project will support their efforts by limiting the cost and
burden of their participation in the project. For example, big bags (flexible intermediate
bulk containers) for collecting marine litter should be distributed to them for free.
Fishermen should also be able to discharge the marine litter free of charge in the ports.
It is also important when you talk to fishermen to keep in mind the distinction between
ship-generated waste, which vessels must manage in compliance with environmental
regulations, and the litter they collect in their nets at sea. Your project aims to promote
and support good waste management practices on fishing vessels for all waste, whether it
is generated on board or collected at sea. Fishermen understand that they have a clear
obligation to manage the waste they generate on board, but some may be reluctant to
take on the responsibility of managing the marine litter caught in their nets. When
discussing your marine litter retention project with fishermen, be sure to keep these two
issues separate.
IV. PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
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Investing time in regular contact with fishermen’s organisations is crucial throughout the
project to maintain motivation and check their satisfaction with the implementation of
the project on the ground. If practical given the size of your project and your resources,
you might wish to work with fishermen’s organisations to organise a meeting or event
once or twice a year to discuss the project with all participating fishermen.
Existing projects have shown that you can build the motivation of fishermen by providing
them with public recognition their involvement in the project. Flags, t-shirts or stickers
with the logo of the project can provide public recognition to individual fishermen and
vessels, contribute to a sense of community ownership among participants and build a
positive public image of fishermen as custodians of the marine environment.
One of the projects assessed by the MARELITT team addressed the problem of marine litter bags being used for galley waste. In this project, when galley waste was found among marine litter, the lead organisation sent a letter to all participating vessels reminding them that only waste collected at sea should be placed in the bags.
IV. PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
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Fishermen’s responsibilities
The responsibilities of fishermen should be agreed before the start of the project.
Fishermen should be provided with a precise description of their tasks and guidance on
how to carry them out.
The general responsibilities of fishermen consist of: clearing litter from their nets;
depositing the collected litter in the big bags; and landing the bags at the port. Fishermen
could also be responsible for putting the bags in the allocated area at the port (for
example, in containers, dedicated storage areas or on the quay), depending on the
arrangements made with the port authorities. Ports might also require fishermen to
provide information on the number of bags to be landed upon arrival at the port.
Fishermen should be able to store all marine litter in the big bags. Fishermen should not
be asked to sort the marine litter on board or in port, as this will discourage them from
participating in the project.
Keeping a register of participating fishermen and the practical arrangements agreed (for
example, with respect to handing out the big bags) throughout the project will help you to
support them and monitor the results of your project. To clarify responsibilities, it is
recommended that you formalise fishermen’s participation in the project by having them
sign an engagement letter defining their tasks and the rules they have to follow.
A model letter of engagement is available for download. The letter can be tailored
to the specifics of your project.
One of the conditions that fishermen must agree to is that they must only use the big bags
for disposing of marine litter and not for disposing of the waste generated on board.
Fishermen in many ports are required to pay a fee for disposing of waste generated on
board, so you will need to ensure that the big bags for marine litter are not used to
dispose of this waste. This will help you to ensure that your project does not carry the
financial burden of disposal of this waste. To this end, you could ask the waste
management company treating the waste to conduct random checks of big bags and
report back to you if they see instances of fishing vessels using the big bags to dispose of
waste generated on board. You could also from time to time carry out random visits on
vessels or in port to check the bags. However, you will need to ensure that your checks do
not impose additional burdens on fishermen and discourage them from participating. You
will need to strike a balance between ensuring that only marine litter is disposed of in the
big bags and maintaining the goodwill of fishermen who are collecting marine litter on a
voluntary basis. In cases where fishermen directly benefit from the scheme, for example,
in a seafood labelling scheme, then there may be a rationale for enforcing this
requirement more strictly.
IV. PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
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Port authorities
The involvement of port authorities is critical to the success of your project, and the
harbour masters will be key contacts in the implementation of your project. If your project
includes more than one port, different arrangements may be necessary with the different
port authorities, based on the arrangements for waste management in each port.
Waste management is often organised differently in different ports: waste facilities might
be owned and operated by the port authority, owned by the port authority but operated
by a private waste management company, or owned and operated by a private waste
manager. These arrangements can have a significant impact on waste reception and
storage and should be discussed with the harbour master of each port authority before
the start of the project. The section of this Toolkit on Litter reception provides more
detailed information on waste management arrangements for marine litter.
While the provision of waste reception facilities is required under the EU Port Reception
Facility Directive, you may be faced with a situation where a fishing port does not have
waste handling procedures and appropriate reception facilities in place. If you come
across this situation, don’t be discouraged – you may be able to reach an arrangement
that can benefit both your project and the port. You could discuss with the port authority
how they can support your project. The port authority could, for example, provide space
and containers for storing marine litter, arrange for the transport and treatment of marine
litter together with other waste brought by ships or produced at the port, or distribute the
big bags to participating fishermen. The port could benefit from this involvement through
improved waste management procedures and facilities in their port, potentially enabling
them to come into compliance with relevant national legislation.
Often ports will be keen to participate in marine litter retention projects to emphasise
their role in protecting the marine environment and to support the local community.
Publicising the role of port authorities in the project as part of your project’s
communications and promotional activities will help provide public recognition of the port
authority’s participation and encourage the port to support the project.
IV. PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
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Waste management companies
Waste management companies, public or private, are often contracted by port authorities
to handle waste and transport it to treatment facilities. To avoid having to set up separate
waste management arrangements for marine litter from your project, it is best to
incorporate marine litter management within the existing waste management system in
the port. Therefore, it is recommended that you discuss with the port authority and the
waste management company how marine litter from your project can be dealt with under
the existing waste management arrangements.
The role of the waste management company will be to transport the marine litter from
the ports to the recycling or disposal facilities. If the waste management company is also
responsible for handling waste within the port, the company will also collect the big bags
on the quays and bring them to a dedicated storage area or container in the port, awaiting
transport to a treatment facility. In this case, if you intend to monitor the litter collected,
you will need to make suitable arrangements that allow for monitoring the quantity of
marine litter collected and for analysing a sample of the litter, if you also want to monitor
origin and composition. The waste management company may help you in this process by
weighing the big bags and analysing a sample of the marine litter collected. The section of
the Toolkit on Monitoring marine litter provides more details on this activity.
In principle, the waste management company will charge a fee for the additional cost of
handling and treating the marine litter collected under your project. However, it is worth
discussing with the waste management company whether it is willing to sponsor the
project by waiving or reducing this fee. If the waste management company is a public
entity – a consortium of local government authorities, for instance – it may fall under a
local policy initiative to reduce waste. This could motivate the waste management
company to support your project. A private company might also provide waste
management services free of charge as part of its corporate social responsibility activities.
Publicising the participation of the waste management company as part of your project’s
communications activities may help to secure and recognise the waste management
company’s contribution to your project.
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Planning the implementation of your project
To ensure that litter collection and reception in the ports goes smoothly, you will need to
arrange practical issues – such as who will deliver the big bags, where the bags will be
delivered, the timing and frequency of deliveries, the procedure for landing the bags –
before the start of the project. We recommend that you discuss these issues in a meeting
with the representatives of participating fishermen’s associations and the port authority’s
harbour master. Holding a meeting in each participating port may be necessary if there
are different procedures for landing litter in the different ports or if the port authority is in
charge of distributing the bags. These meetings will help you to identify potential
problems that participants might encounter in their participation in the project. Often,
fishermen’s associations may have questions or concerns about particular issues such as
the space on vessels for the big bags or the flexibility of landing hours. These meetings will
help you to arrange these practical details in a way that works for all project participants.
A checklist for initial meetings with participants is available for download.
The results of these discussions can be wrapped up and communicated to all participating
fishermen at a kick-off meeting. Practical details can also be compiled in a short guidance
document to be handed out to fishermen during the kick-off meeting.
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Litter collection
Other than the bags that are used to store and transport marine litter, no specific
equipment is needed for litter collection. The lead organisation should ensure fishermen
are provided with containers. In most marine litter retention projects, the lead
organisation provides the bags directly to the fishermen. If fishermen or port authorities
already have already bags that they are willing to use, it is important to check if they are
solid enough to carry the litter. If bags are not solid enough they will be damaged more
easily, which will create logistical issues and will slow down litter collection.
Photo: Marine litter collection on board, using a big bag (Source: Bord Iascaigh Mhara)
The bags do not have to be specifically designed or manufactured for the project. Most
marine litter projects use flexible intermediate bulk containers, commonly referred to as
big bags, which are provided to fishermen by the lead organisation. These big bags can be
purchased from a number of suppliers, including, for example, hardware stores and online
suppliers. If your project involves vessels of different sizes, you might offer fishermen
several sizes of bags – smaller vessels may need smaller bags to ensure fishermen have
enough free space on board during fishing trips. Typical big bags used for marine litter
retention projects measure L90 x W90 x H90 cm and have a weight capacity of 200
kilogrammes, and a volume of 100 litres. The bags are usually made of polypropylene, for
greater strength, and can be reused several times. You can have the logo of the project,
and of project sponsors, printed on the big bags. This can promote your project, help to
ensure bags are returned for reuse and also facilitate monitoring of marine litter as the
bags will be easily recognisable.
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You should ensure that fishermen have regular and easy access to the big bags.
Integrating the distribution of bags into to the fishing vessel’s existing activities in port will
make it easier for fishermen to participate. You should discuss this with your contacts in
the fishing association to identify the best time to distribute bags. The frequency of
distribution will depend on the type and size of vessels and how much litter they typically
collect in each haul. Larger vessels, which do longer trips, are likely to need more bags
than small-scale fishing vessels.
The removal of marine litter does not require specific skills or experience, and does not
require a change in crew size. However, some extra time will be required to remove the
litter from the nets, to deposit it in the big bags and to put the big bags on the quays.
In one project, big bags of 100x100x100cm were provided to trawlers, bags of 45x45x60cm were distributed to smaller vessels and bags of 32x29x43cm to small-scale fishing vessels. In other marine litter projects, fishermen have used plastic or metal containers. This approach is more adapted to larger vessels.
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Litter reception
No special equipment is needed to unload the big bags. The equipment usually used to
unload the fish can be used to unload the big bags and put them on the quay. The bags
will then need to be taken to the existing waste reception facilities in the port. Either
fishermen will take the bags to reception facilities themselves or staff from the port
authority or waste management company will take the bags to the reception facilities.
Who takes the bags to the waste reception facilities will depend on what is agreed with
the port authority during the project set-up and the normal arrangements for handling
waste from vessels in the port. We recommend that you make sure the arrangements for
handling marine litter are the same as the normal arrangements for handling the fishing
vessels’ own waste.
If, under your project, fishermen have to take their big bags to reception facilities,
arranging with the port authority that the litter can be stored in the same area as ship-
generated waste will prevent fishermen having to go to two different places to land their
waste. However, keep in mind that you will want to ensure that the marine litter is kept
separate in the big bags to allow for proper monitoring of the litter collected.
If fishermen are responsible for taking their bags to reception facilities, they need to have
flexible access to the containers. If possible, fishermen should have 24/7 access to
reception facilities, as fishing vessels come back to the port at any hour of the day and
during the weekend. If this cannot be arranged with the port authority, a mixed system
enabling fishermen to leave the bags on the quay when containers are not accessible may
be a suitable alternative.
As big bags can be reused for several litter collections, you should make arrangements
with the waste management companies to have your empty bags returned to the port.
One project handled the issue of access to waste reception facilities by providing participating fishermen with individual keys to open the containers used to store waste in the port. This made access to the containers easy and convenient for fishermen at any time of the day.
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Recycling and disposal
Recycling as much of the collected waste as possible may be an important objective for
your project. If so, you should discuss waste treatment and recycling options with the
waste management company contracted by participating ports. Although you may not
have a lot of scope for changing their waste treatment procedures, cost-effective recycling
options for at least some categories of marine litter could be agreed with the waste
management company. If the waste management company does not have a recycling
solution, you could possibly, as lead organisation, investigate other recycling options that
could work in your local situation. By continuing discussions with your waste management
company, you might be able to reach a solution to recycle some of the marine litter from
your project.
One of the projects assessed by the MARELITT team aims to bring the collected marine litter back into the material circle by recycling as many waste fractions as possible. As a first step, the collected litter is manually separated and sorted by project partners on a yearly basis (previously a national take-back system for packaging waste, now regional waste management companies) to determine the exact composition and if possible the origin of litter items. The initial results from the North Sea suggest that around 75% are plastics including fishing nets; the rest consists of metals, rubber, textiles, wood or paper. Metal fractions go directly into recycling. As a second step, the plastic fractions are analysed with regards to their recyclability and quality loss by a specialised university department, who is a partner in the project. The first results of this analysis will be available at the beginning of 2015. The design of special products made from marine litter is envisaged as part of the project.
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Project communication
Strong project communications will keep your participants and project team engaged and
motivated and will help you to attract new participants or sponsors. Consider how you will
communicate key project information to the other participants in your project over the
lifetime of the project, particularly fishermen, port authorities, waste management
companies and anyone providing financial or in-kind support to the project. To
communicate with participants, you may wish to use the following communication tools:
Meetings: For example, you might wish to hold regular meetings with the port
authorities and fishing associations to provide updates on new developments in the
project and collect their feedback on the project. These regular meetings don’t
necessarily need to be held in person; they could also be held by phone or over
Skype.
Leaflets or newsletters: For example, you might wish to issue a project newsletter
to communicate with fishermen or regularly update your project leaflet to ensure
that it contains the most recent information for fishermen.
Email: For example, rather than holding meetings, you could provide regular
updates to port authorities and others by email.
Website: For example, you might have a website to communicate about your
project to the broader public, but this could also be used to provide practical
information, such as contact details, to project participants.
A strategy to communicate your project to the broader public can make use of a wide
variety of communication channels, such as participating in community events, workshops
and conferences, publications, social media and press releases to the local media. You
might also wish to develop a logo for your project to provide visual recognition. Some EU
funds have precise requirements in terms of project communication, which you will need
to be aware of if you receive these funds. For example, the LIFE programme requires an
independent project website, so a page dedicated to the project on your organisation’s
website will not be sufficient. The website should be written in your local language, but
for some EU funds, it might be a requirement to have also the website available in English.
More tips on project communication tools can be found on the LIFE programme website.
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Raising awareness of marine litter
While strong project communications might help you to raise awareness about marine
litter, awareness-raising about the problem of marine litter may be a specific objective of
your project. To do so, an awareness-raising strategy should be developed, with the aim
to build awareness about the problem of marine litter and encourage changes in
behaviour to prevent marine litter. Awareness-raising activities go beyond the participants
in a marine litter project by targeting people whose behaviours contribute to the problem
of marine litter in your area. This will usually mean targeting those who litter on shore or
discharge litter at sea. In regions where marine litter comes primarily from the maritime
and fishing industry, this will mean targeting the shipping or aquaculture industries. In
regions where tourism and recreational activities are major sources of litter, your
awareness-raising activities will be focused on tourists and the general public.
Developing an awareness-raising strategy includes defining clear and measurable
objectives and a set of tailored messages, activities and products to achieve these
objectives. The first step will be to identify the context and the problem you want to
alleviate. In particular, you need to identify the main contributors to the marine litter
problem in your region. Monitoring the marine litter collected by your project may help
you to do this. You will then be able to define your target audience, objectives, and
develop appropriate messages and activities for each target audience.
Your marine litter retention project can be used as an opportunity and a vehicle to raise
awareness of the problem and impacts of marine litter, by attracting attention to the
marine litter problem. Communicating about the impacts and successes of your project
will help to raise awareness of marine litter in general.
One of the projects assessed by MARELITT targeted boaters, tourists, students of fishing schools. Flyers and plastic bags were distributed to boaters, encouraging them to dispose of their litter responsibly. Posters explaining the biodegradability of products in the sea were placed on the beaches to attract tourists’ attention. Students from a local fishing school participated in the disassembling and sorting of collected fishing gears in harbours to be sent for recycling.
One of the projects assessed by the MARELITT team organises public monitoring demonstrations every two years in which 20-30 bags are publicly sorted and analysed, to illustrate the marine litter problem and to make it more tangible to a wider audience. This also provides public recognition of the efforts of the fishermen who collect marine litter.
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Monitoring marine litter
Monitoring the marine litter collected by your project will require you to collect
information about the origin, amount and composition of the waste that fishermen return
to port. The information collected can be used to evaluate the results of your project (see
section 6 on project monitoring), to raise awareness about the marine litter problem and
your project, and to attract support for your project. It will also help you to more
efficiently manage your project in the future. For example, if you monitor the litter
collected during the first year of your project, you will be able to make better assumptions
on how much litter you can collect for the next years. You may also learn more about the
sources of marine litter, and be able to better target your awareness-raising activities. If
you prepare any reports on your projects for policymakers (for example, local, regional or
national authorities) or research organisations, you could also integrate the results in your
reports so that these organisations can use the information in developing policy measures
and improving their understanding of the marine litter problem.
The information that you will collect will depend on the resources available for your
project and on the possible uses of the information. At the very least, you should monitor
the total amount (in weight and volume) of marine litter that is collected and, where
possible, the amount collected by each of the vessels. The waste management company
will most likely count and weigh the big bags for invoicing purposes. This will help you
keep track of the amount of marine litter collected. If you mark the bags and keep track of
which vessels receive which bags, you can also track the amount of litter collected by each
vessel.
You might also want to monitor the origin and the composition of the marine litter. This
will require a sample analysis of the content of a sufficiently large number of big bags at
specific intervals during the year. There are no accepted standards on the percentage of
the total marine litter collected needed to draw statistically meaningful conclusions on the
composition of the marine litter, but 10% seems to be a minimum. To support your
project’s monitoring activities, you could develop a simple sheet for the sample analysis.
When you organise your marine litter monitoring scheme, you should be realistic about
the type of information you can collect and think about the practical consequences for
your project – in terms of costs and resources. Also, you should only collect information
that will be subsequently used, for example to underpin awareness-raising campaigns or
policy measures. For example, if you are considering analysing a sample of the marine
litter to determine its origin by linking the amounts collected per vessel with the fishing
grounds where the vessels are active, this may allow you to draw conclusions on the
distribution of the litter. While this information might be very interesting, you should
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consider whether this information will be used. If the only use of the information is your
project’s report, it may not be worth the extra effort.
Your organisation could undertake the marine litter analysis alone or, ideally, with the
support of others, such as the waste management company or a research institute. In
general, fishermen should not be asked to participate in monitoring activities, due to the
burden this would place on their participation in the project.
More guidance on monitoring marine litter is provided in the Guidance on monitoring of
marine litter in European Seas (JRC, 2013), which was prepared by an expert group on
marine litter advising on the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.
This document provides a master list of categories of litter items that might be
documented during marine litter monitoring activities, which could be used as the basis
for your monitoring sheet.
An example monitoring sheet, based on the European guidelines, is available for
download. This document can be adapted according to your local situation and
be used in your monitoring activities.
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Complementary activities
You should consider whether there are any opportunities to cooperate with other types of
marine litter projects in your local area. Your project might benefit from sharing efforts
and resources with other projects in areas such as joint management of the marine litter
collected or joint awareness campaigns.
Other types of projects that might be carried out in your local area include:
derelict fishing gear retrieval projects;
clean-up of port areas (mostly carried out by port authorities);
seasonal clean-ups of coastal waters (mostly by local authorities, sometimes with
vessels also used for oil spills);
research projects, under which marine litter is being collected with a view to better
understanding the problem;
diving for litter projects, carried out by diving clubs, local authorities or NGOs;
collection of floating litter near the shoreline, often carried out by local
governments;
beach clean-ups.
A number of initiatives provide guidance to organisations who wish to carry out these
activities. For example, the Ocean Initiatives’ Organizer’s Kit provides you with a protocol
to organise a local beach clean-up. Project Aware’s Dive Against Debris project provides
guidelines for conducting diving for litter initiatives, from choosing a diving site to
recording data. Detailed guidance on monitoring beach litter is provided in the Guidance
on monitoring of marine litter in European Seas (JRC, 2013) and the Marine Litter Watch
app helps volunteers report the marine litter they collect on beaches to a Europe-wide
database.
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Not to be confused with monitoring marine litter, project monitoring should be
understood here as a management tool. Project monitoring and evaluation is the process
of systematically collecting, recording and organising information about your project’s
activities and results. Regular project monitoring and evaluation will help you to assess the
impacts of your project and to identify lessons that can be used to improve future
projects. It will also help you to prove to any organisations providing funding or other
support that the project is on track to achieve what it plans to achieve and can help you to
complete reports that you may need to submit to financing authorities.
Setting the right indicators during the planning of your project will help you to monitor
your project. Indicators are quantitative or qualitative factors or variables that provide a
means to measure achievement of objectives. Section 3 provides guidance on setting
indicators.
During the project, you should record information related to the indicators and targets
you have defined in the project plan. Various means of data collection can be used,
depending on the type of data you need. You might collect information about the number
of participating fishermen and vessels or the amount and composition of marine litter
collected. You may even wish to survey fishermen on their attitude towards marine litter
before and after the project as an interesting way to measure whether their behaviour has
changed.
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Funding strategy
Developing a strategy for securing the funding that your organisation and partners cannot
provide internally will be a critical part of the preparation of your project. After preparing
your initial budget (see the guidance in section 3 on project budget), you will be able to
determine funding needs more precisely, including what can be provided by partner
organisations, including through in-kind contributions, and what needs to be funded by an
external source, such as a grant. A good funding strategy will consider all options for
contribution to the project costs. For example, some potentially large costs, such as waste
handling and treatment, can be provided through in-kind contribution by the waste
management company as a project partner. We use the term ‘project sponsors’ for those
contributing to your project by grant funding, corporate funding, in-kind or other.
The funding strategy will also depend very much on the project situation and the
availability of grant programmes from EU, national, regional or local public funds, as well
as options to attract funding from non-governmental sources such as foundations and
private sector stakeholders.
Your funding strategy should answer the following questions:
Who can potentially contribute? When thinking about who could contribute,
consider who contributes to the problem (sources of marine litter), who could help
to solve the problem and who has an interest in getting the problem solved. These
three categories of organisations may be ready to fund.
What external sources are available to meet the funding needs? What are their
requirements in terms of specific costs/budget item eligibility, timing, etc.?
What will be needed to develop funding proposals?
What are the terms of the available funding sources – can any of them support the
project over a longer period (e.g. more than one year)?
Are there any options for securing private sector funding? For example, through
financial support, in-kind support or revenue from recycling?
In one of the assessed projects, funding was provided by a total of nine national and local organisations. Industries, governments and non-profit organisations were included in the funding strategy. This broad range of sponsors was made possible through building strong relationships with current and future potential sponsors and the dissemination of 3-yearly and annual activity reports to keep sponsors updated on the project.
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Motivation for project sponsors
As mentioned above, there might be various reasons for organisations to sponsor your
project. This section provides key messages that you might want to emphasise when you
first meet with potential sponsors of your project.
Why should public sector organisations (EU, national government, regional and local
authorities, public waste management companies, tourism authorities) co-sponsor your
project (financially or in-kind)?
EU Member States have the obligation to achieve “good environmental status” for
their marine environment by 2020 under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive
(2008/56/EC). This includes the setting of binding targets on marine litter at the
national and/or regional level, which has happened to a varying degree (see Art. 12
assessment report). In its Communication “Towards a circular economy” the
Commission has set the aspirational target of 30% reduction by 2020 for the then
most common types of litter found on beaches, as well as for fishing gear found at
sea, with the list adapted to each of the four marine regions in the EU. Member
States will also have commitments under regional action plans on marine litter.
Supporting a marine litter retention initiative will help governments to reach these
objectives. Check your national Marine Strategy Programme of Measures (to be in
place by 2015) for more concrete elements on the national agenda. Contacting the
national entity responsible for the MSFD may help you to identify opportunities for
securing support for your project.
The Marine Strategy Framework Directive also aims to protect the resource base
upon which marine-related economic and social activities depend. National,
regional and local authorities have an interest in clean marine waters and shores
since this will be beneficial for fishing activities, for the tourism sector as well as for
the livelihoods of local coastal communities. Marine litter poses specific threats to
the fishing industry, through the loss of fish stocks due to ghost fishing, spoiled
catches through contamination, and damage to nets and to propellers. Marine litter
might also pose risks to the aquaculture sector through damaged cages or
contaminated stock. The tourism sector is also impacted by marine litter through
aesthetic impacts and increased risks for marine-related leisure activities.
Local authorities can avoid costs for cleaning up shorelines, ports andharbours.
Public authorities have a responsibility to protect common goods such as public
health, safety and the environment. Marine litter causes threats to marine wildlife
due to digestion (over 180 species are known to ingest plastic debris),
entanglement and toxicological effects due to contamination. Marine litter can
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reduce the quality of bathing water, potentially causing hygiene problems, and
creates the risk of encountering hazardous materials to swimmers, divers and
snorkelers. Contamination of food due to indigestion of (micro-)plastics by fish has
been raised as a risk; however, further evidence is required to fully understand this
risk.
Marine litter is recognised as a growing global problem. Recent EU policy proposals
on a circular economy refer to necessary action to achieve a significant reduction of
marine litter – a commitment also made at the Rio+20 Conference in 2012 and in
the 7th Environmental Action Plan. While more comprehensive measures against
marine litter will be needed to tackle the problem on a global scale, supporting a
marine litter retention project is a concrete, immediate and symbolic opportunity
for public authorities to show their determination in fighting this global
phenomenon at the local level.
In addition to having a legal responsibility for managing waste from vessels, port
authorities receive income from the fishing sector. Sharing the responsibility with
the fishing sector for the costs of collecting marine litter may therefore be
appropriate.
Why should private sector companies co-sponsor your project (financially or in-kind)?
There are a number of reasons why companies might want to support a marine litter
project. If certain industries are seen as causing the marine litter problem, companies in
these sectors may want to be seen to be contributing to the solution. Other companies
may wish to provide support as part of their broader corporate social responsibility
programme. Some private sector companies may also wish to support your project if they
benefit directly or indirectly from cleaner seas and beaches.
Plastic producing companies will often be aware of the fact that the most abundant
type of marine litter is plastics (up to 80% on some shorelines). They might be
interested in supporting a marine litter retention project as part of their corporate
social responsibility (CSR) activities.
National or regional (packaging) waste collection and (plastic) recycling systems
might be interested in sponsoring given the links to their core business and
reputational effects. The better they perform and the larger their coverage, the
smaller the amount of litter eventually reaching water bodies. They might also
support efforts to monitor and analyse the collected waste fractions since this can
contribute to better knowledge about composition of marine waste and its optimal
treatment. Although collected quantities will probably be too low to create
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significant revenue from recycling, this potential for revenue could also create some
incentive to support your project.
For regional and local waste operators that are active in the area and in the port in
any case, sponsoring a marine litter retention project can be done in-kind without a
major additional effort, and could provide significant public recognition from the
local community.
The shipping industry (cargo, passengers, fishing, research) is a major marine-based
source of marine litter, even if dumping at the sea is forbidden (International
Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships: MARPOL 73/78; EU
legislation to prevent pollution from ships). Some shipping companies might thus
be willing to sponsor a project as part of their CSR activities and combine it with
awareness-raising in their company or within the sector.
Companies in the tourism sector (hotels, beach facilities, sailing or diving clubs) in
your area might be aware that tourist facilities and recreational visitors discarding
waste are a significant source of marine litter. They also base their business on a
clean, healthy and visually enjoyable environment. Initiatives to reduce marine
litter are thus in their interest and can be combined with awareness-raising
campaigns.
Aquaculture companies might suffer from contaminated stocks or damages of their
cages and might be willing to support a project on marine litter retention in their
area.
Restaurants and others purchasing fish from the region may be sensitive about the
quality of the products they buy. Contamination of fish due to plastics indigestion is
a topic which receives increasing public attention. Supporting a local marine litter
retention project might align with the promotional and high quality standard
practices of some operators.
Involving the private sector as sponsor for your project has, in many cases, the benefit of
strengthening the link between the concrete remediation activities of your project to a
sector that contributes to the problem or benefits from its solution. To motivate
companies to support your project, you might want to consider ways to provide public
recognition of the contributions of your sponsors (via media, logo, website, etc.). Further
information about this is provided in section 5 on Project communication.
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Applying for EU funding
European funds may be provided through either direct grants or indirect grants. Direct
grants include programmes that are managed by the European Commission and cover the
whole EU. Indirect grants support national and regional objectives are linked to national or
regional operational programmes and are managed by ministries or regional agencies. This
distinction will affect your choice of funding in many ways:
In terms of objectives, you may wish to adapt your project according to the priorities
of the national/regional operational programme.
In terms of competition, if you apply for a direct grant, you will be competing with
organisations in the whole EU. If you apply for an indirect grant, the competing
organisations will come from your Member State. You might decide to present a
joint project with some of these competing organisations in case of similar or
complementary project objectives.
In terms of language, if you apply directly to your ministry or agency you will write
your proposal in your national language. If you apply for a direct grant, you can write
your proposal in any EU official language, but English is strongly recommended.
Potential EU funds you may wish to consider for your marine litter retention projects are:
Direct grants: LIFE; Horizon 2020
Indirect grants: European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF); Cohesion Policy
Fund, in particular transnational cooperation programmes (INTERREG) funded by
the ERDF. On-going INTERREG operational programmes include, for example, the
Operational Programme North Sea Region, the Baltic Sea Region Programme and
the Adriatic Ionian Programme. New programmes are currently being developed and
most will be in place from 2015.
Other grant programmes: EEA Grants and Norway Grants (Estonia, Bulgaria, Greece,
Lithuania).
When you consider which funding opportunity is the best option for your project, consider
the geographical scope of your project. In some funding programmes, transnationality –
that is, a project that operates across more than one country – is a requirement. In other
programmes only national projects can be funded. If you intend to set up a multi-country
project, LIFE or transnational cooperation programmes are appropriate; the EMFF is not.
Other elements to consider are the minimum number of beneficiaries, eligible countries,
or co-financing rates.
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A table comparing different EU funding options as well as a flow chart to provide some guidance in a simplified format is available for download. Since some of the operational rules for the funding period 2014 to 2020 were not yet finalised at the time of preparing this Toolkit, you should make sure you get the latest available information from the websites listed below and national or regional contact points.
To help you with your proposal, or to ask questions about the types of project eligible for
funding, you can contact your national contact points or the national/regional funding
authority:
Life national contact points
EMFF national authorities
Horizon 2020 national contact points
Cohesion policy Funds national managing authorities.
Guidelines for applying to several funds are available on programme websites:
LIFE guidelines for applicants (here for 2014)
the Horizon 2020 online manual.
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Other funding options
Regional Seas Conventions
While the secretariats for the Regional Sea Conventions do not directly fund projects, they
do develop marine litter action plans. Countries that are contracting parties to the
conventions may then take actions under these plans or fund projects. These marine litter
action plans are a good starting point for more information about marine litter activities in
your region. The secretariats for the Regional Sea Conventions might also be a useful point
of contact for information about actions and initiatives that could fund marine litter
retention projects.
The four European Regional Sea Conventions are:
The Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment in the North-East
Atlantic of 1992 (further to earlier versions of 1972 and 1974) – the OSPAR
Convention (OSPAR)
The Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment in the Baltic Sea Area
of 1992 (further to the earlier version of 1974) – the Helsinki Convention (HELCOM)
The Convention for the Protection of Marine Environment and the Coastal Region
of the Mediterranean of 1995 (further to the earlier version of 1976) – the
Barcelona Convention (UNEP-MAP)
The Convention for the Protection of the Black Sea of 1992 – the Bucharest
Convention.
Black Sea Commission
There is no dedicated project on marine litter at the moment at the Black Sea
Commission’s Secretariat. However, the issue of marine litter is receiving increased
attention. The Black Sea Commission might participate in global projects on marine
litter in the future and attract funding for projects in the area. For information on
new developments you can contact: Ms Irina Makarenko
(irina.makarenko@blacksea-commission.org) or secretariat@blacksea-
commission.org.
OSPAR (North-East Atlantic Region)
OSPAR adopted a Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter in June 2014, providing a
regional contribution to the EU’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive. While the
Action Plan aims to enable OSPAR countries to substantially reduce marine litter in
VII. FUNDING FOR YOUR PROJECT
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North-East Atlantic it does not allocate any specific funding. Any such funding for
marine litter removal projects would become available only on the specific initiative
(and out of the budget) of the Contracting Parties. It might still be very valuable for
your project to contact the OSPAR Commission to inquire where activities on the
Action Plan stand and whether they have any recommendations on regional
funding options: John Mouat (John.Mouat@ospar.org) or secretariat@ospar.org.
HELCOM (Baltic Sea Region)
HELCOM does not open calls for proposals. Projects developed in the frame of
HELCOM are a result of mandates from Contracting Parties. If you plan a project on
marine litter it might still be useful to get in touch with the HELCOM secretariat to
check on-going developments and to liaise with people working on marine litter
and potentially with other projects that are being developed in the Baltic Sea
region. Contact: Marta Ruiz (Marta.Ruiz@helcom.fi) or
helcom.secretariat@helcom.fi.
The Barcelona Convention (Mediterranean):
Contracting parties of the Barcelona Convention agreed on a Marine Litter Regional
Action Plan in December 2013. Currently, guidelines on environmentally sound
fishing for litter projects are being developed as well as guidance on monitoring
marine litter. While no concrete funding opportunities exist for the time being, the
Secretariat of the Barcelona Convention tries to mobilise resources for fishing for
litter projects in the future. For up-to-date information you can contact: Tatjana
Hema (tatjana.hema@unepmap.gr).
Other initiatives
BONUS (Baltic Sea Region)
BONUS brings together the research communities of marine, maritime, economical
and societal research to address the major challenges faced by the Baltic Sea
region. It is a research and development programme to protect the Baltic Sea with
€100 million allocated for 2010 to 2017. Despite the focus on science and research,
it might be useful to liaise with BONUS for your project in the field of marine litter
retention: http://www.bonusportal.org/.
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Global Initiative on Marine Litter
In 2003, UNEP’s Regional Seas Coordinating Office and the Global Programme of
Action (GPA) embarked on the development of a ‘global initiative on marine litter’.
The initiative aimed at the establishment and development of pilot regional
activities in regions that are particularly affected. The global initiative also provides
a global platform for the establishment of partnerships, co-operation and co-
ordination of activities for the control and sustainable management of marine litter.
The continuation of the initiative, concrete activities and funding are currently
being discussed.
Foundations
Various philanthropic organisations have funding programmes on oceans, the marine
environment or fisheries; few of them chose marine litter as a priority. In general, these
foundations have a pro-active way of funding which means they do not deal with
unsolicited funding requests but identify the projects themselves. In addition to the
general value of networking, it could be useful to liaise with NGOs in your area that are
active in the area of marine litter to find out about their funding sources and whether
there is room for an additional project.
Baltic 2020 Foundation
Based in Sweden, this private foundation provides grants to projects dealing with
eutrophication, fishing and environmental awareness-raising in the Baltic Sea. It
funds small projects and big programmes, mostly in Sweden but also in other
countries. For example, it provided a grant to WWF Poland to carry out a project on
derelict fishing gear retrieval. Further information can be found here or by
contacting info@balticsea2020.org.
Protection Fund for the Archipelago Sea of Centrum Balticum Foundation
The Protection Fund for the Archipelago Sea finances concrete water conservation
projects in the Archipelago Sea and its catchment area by funds collected from
private persons, companies and organisations. You will find further information on
their website (comprehensive version only in Finnish and Swedish).
Obviously, this list cannot be exhaustive and funding programmes and priorities change.
We therefore recommend exhaustive research based on your project’s objectives and your
region. The contacts provided in this section provide first steps to help you getting started.
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