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Assessment of marine litter on Morocco’s Mediterranean beaches
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Researchers assessed marine litter on four Mediterranean beaches in Morocco over a seasonal cycle in 2018-2019 following UNEP/MAP guidelines, collecting an average of 1,768 items/100 m at 0.34 items/m2. Plastic and polystyrene accounted for 74.1% of total debris, with tourism and recreational waste representing the dominant source (52%), and plastic fragments, cigarette butts, and bottle caps comprising nearly half of all items.
Marine litter pollution is one of the world’s major environmental challenges. In the Mediterranean, marine litter on beaches is mainly generated by tourism and recreational activities. The present study is part of an "Adopt-a-Beach" pilot project, initiated as part of the Marine Litter MED (ML MED) project, coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme UNEP/MAP. The main objective of this work was to assess and quantify marine litter on four beaches along Morocco’s Mediterranean coast (Merkala Tanger, Amsa Tetouan, Sabadia Al Hoceima, and Miami Nador) over a seasonal cycle during 2018–2019, in line with UNEP/MAP guidelines. On average, 1768 items/100 m were collected from the four beaches, with a density of 0.34 items/m2. "Plastic/polystyrene" was the main component of the total debris collected, accounting for 74.1% in number of items, followed by "paper/cardboard" at 6.4%. The dominant categories of top 10 items were "plastic/polystyrene pieces < 50 cm" (G76), "cigarette butts and filters" (G27), "plastic caps and lids" (G21/24), and "crisps packets/sweets wrappers" (G30/31) that all comprised 49.9% of the total items. Tourism and recreational wastes were the most represented sources at 52%.
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