• Mediterranean Sea plastics pollution comparable to contamination in Pacific
• 72 percent of garbage collected on Spain’s Mediterranean beaches is plastic
Greenpeace España, the Spanish section of international non-governmental environmental organization Greenpeace, has warned of the increasing threat posed to the Mediterranean Sea environment by plastics pollution and says that the Mediterranean is fast reaching a density of plastic waste comparable to the so-called “plastic soups” of the Pacific Ocean.
Using World Oceans Day to bring the problem of plastics pollution in the Mediterranean to the attention of the Spanish public, Greenpeace sailed its Rainbow Warrior III ship into the port of Valencia and held a press conference on Thursday to present its report Un Mediterráneo lleno de plástico (“A Mediterranean full of plastic”) and publicize its campaign to pressure the Spanish government to do more to help reduce the amount of plastics contaminating the Mediterranean.
► Sign Greenpeace petition [in Spanish] to Save the Mediterranean from Plastics!
► Download English version of Greenpeace’s Mediterranean plastic report …
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According to Greenpeace, 96 percent of contaminant wastes analyzed in the Mediterranean are plastics and it is estimated that as much as half of all fragments of microplastics in the world are found in the Mediterranean basin.
The Greenpeace report also notes that 72 percent of garbage collected on Spanish beaches in the Mediterranean is plastic and that plastics account for 97.3 percent of the garbage ingested by the Mediterranean’s loggerhead turtles, which nest on beaches from Greece and Turkey to Israel and Libya and are the most commonly found type of turtle in the Mediterranean.
► Read More in Spanish at Europa Press, and EFE via Las Provincias …
► Sign Greenpeace petition [in Spanish] to Save the Mediterranean from Plastics!
