“Close to Me(d)iterranean” aims at increasing the capacity of the Mediterranean local associations in fighting plastic pollution, with a longer-term goal to contribute to the reduction of plastic in the Mediterranean Sea. The initiative was based on the success of the Clean up the Med campaign, which for 25 years had involved hundreds of associations, schools, municipalities, universities and tour operators in cleaning, awareness-raising and management activities to reduce pollution of the Albanian, Algerian, Croatian, Egyptian, Spanish, French, Italian, Greek, Lebanese, Moroccan, Montenegrin, Jordanian, Portuguese, Palestinian, Tunisian and Turkish.
In recent years, the campaign has taken a step forward by including participatory science activities for the collection of scientific data on plastic pollution. The objective was to support the scientific community in the conservation of marine protected areas and to strengthen the civic awareness of young people around the Mediterranean.
By promoting the capacities of Mediterranean associations through training and the organization of a Mediterranean summit on participatory science, the initiative reinforced and deepened the campaign launched 25 years earlier.
Main results of the project:
The project had two main objectives:
Every year, a training meeting is organized to strengthen the Clean up the Med network. In November 2018, thanks to funding from BeMed, eleven new associations were invited and trained in the protocols.
Following this day, the project leader coordinated all the waste characterization campaigns of the network members, i.e. around 60 organizations in 13 different countries.
The results made it possible to characterize the waste and identify its source.
Updated on 31/03/2025
