Litter found on European sea beaches

In a circular plastics economy, the release of plastics to the environment should be kept to a minimum. This indicator provides insights into whether we are approaching this. In addition, many of the items identified are single-use plastic items contributing to marine pollution, which is key concern of the Single-Use Plastics Directive. The 10 most found single use plastic items on European beaches account for 43% of total marine litter, while fishing gear represents an additional 27% of all marine litter.

Marine litter is mismanaged waste that was discarded into the sea, rivers, land or beaches, that ends up in the sea via rivers, sewage, storm water or winds. Sources of beach litter can be either land-based or sea-based. Plastic items make up the bulk of total litter found on European beaches. Its environmental impacts are also largest in coastal and marine ecosystems because they have long life cycles and are ingested easily by many organisms. Marine litter causes large economic costs, ecological damage and social impact, adversely affecting tourism, fisheries, shipping and many other economic sectors. Costs of litter to EU fishery and tourism/recreation were once calculated as a minimum of 61.7 and 630 million Euros respectively for the EU .

European policies tackling marine litter are most notably the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD, 2008/56/EC), the Single Use Plastics Directive (SUPD, EU/2019/904), the Plastic Bags Directive (EU/2015/720), the Circular Economy Action Plan (COM/2020/98), the Zero Pollution Action Plan (ZPAP, COM/2021/400), and the Plastic Strategy (COM/2018/028). The MSFD aims to reach Good Environmental Status in European Seas and has a threshold value of 20 macro litter items/100 m of beach strip. The SUP directive forbids specific plastic single-use items that are shown to make up for a significant share of marine litter in Europe (47% in 2022).  One of the six main interim targets of the ZPAP for 2030 is reducing litter at sea by 50%.