Final Report Summary - MARLISCO (MARine Litter in Europe Seas: Social AwarenesS and CO-Responsability)
Executive Summary:
MARLISCO has contributed to set a clear picture regarding Marine litter in each of the European Regional Seas as well as to towards a better understanding of the science-society nexus and provided material to translate research-based. The project included a review on distribution, quantities and types, sources, and impacts of marine litter; a summary of current methods of monitoring and assessment for ML; a review of existing policies that may be applied to mitigate the impact of ML.
WP2 identified 72 best practices for the reduction of ML. It tells how the issue of ML is addressed and allows the identification of key attributes that make a ML minimisation practice a ‘best’ practice.
The “MARLISCO Marine Litter Database”, is an additional means of further disseminating project products and activities. It is an interactive database, developed to collate all the litter data that partners have captured during the project as a result of the clean-up activities initiated to raise awareness about the marine litter issue. The database has been developed with an interactive map interface that allows the user to pinpoint the clean-up locations. The database also allows users to interrogate the data to get information on specific types of waste or specific locations.
MARLISCO has developed a user-friendly “what-to-do: problem-processes-solution” (available in 8 languages) Guide for stakeholders, decision-makers and key actors on tips and means to manage and reduce marine litter. Using the clusters identified during the analysis of the recorded best practices as the backbone, the guide outlines the main actions that different stakeholder groups and key actors can take, while at the same time presenting practical examples that support the implementation efforts, help transfer knowledge, experience and methods from elsewhere, and present networking and cooperation opportunities
MARLISCO project has assessed society’s perceptions about marine litter and evaluated the impact of a number of educational and outreach activities with a range of stakeholder groups across Europe. Gauging people’s baseline perceptions and assessing the effectiveness of communication and engagement attempts is critical if we are to develop better strategies to improve understanding about the problem and solutions surrounding marine litter and influence behavioural change. To achieve this, MARLISCO developed a range of social surveys applicable to a variety of participants, including children, the general public and educators, and prepared several publically available reports documenting the methods and key findings.
MARLISCO conducted an extensive European-wide survey on awareness and perceptions about marine litter. Detailed results are available in the project report “Baseline Evaluation of Stakeholder perceptions and attitudes towards issues surrounding marine litter”. MARLISCO undertook the evaluation of the effectiveness of specific outreach and educational activities MARLISCO. Detailed results from each survey evaluation are presented in the project’s evaluation report “Evaluation of specific educational and outreach activities related to marine litter (Impact of National Fora, Impact of Video contest, Impact of E-Learning Courses for Educators, Visitors perception at National Exhibitions).
MARLISCO has organised and run a series of 12 national marine litter fora across Europe between April 2014 and April 2015. The Fora were to raise awareness of the marine litter issue and find potential long term solutions. This activity was undertaken through engagement of stakeholders with an interest in, or responsibility for, some aspect of reducing the quantity of litter entering the oceans across Europe and by gathering stakeholder’s opinions on how to address marine litter in their country.
The European Video competition that MARLISCO launched in 2013 represented a specific activity to engage youngsters and trigger awareness by actively encouraging them to get in touch with the issue with a critical and creative perspective. In total, 379 videos were submitted, from the 14 participating coastal countries, reflective the direct involvement of 2123 youngsters.
MARLISCO aimed at constructively connecting science to society by ‘translating’ current state-of-the-art marine litter knowledge into relevant awareness raising and educational tools, that can be used to motivate people and trigger sustainable actions in the partner countries. The compilation of a multilingual Educational Pack targeting primarily learners aged 10-15 years has been implemented
Another appealing multilingual MARLISCO output that attempts to translate science as well as policies to meaningful, yet not paternalistic learning content is an interactive e-game; a kind of a Role Playing Game (RPG) using comics, entitled “Sea Dream Team”.
Another tool of MARLISCO with an outreach estimated to more than one hundred thousand people has been the awareness raising exhibition.
MARLISCO has defined the format, the structure and the content of an informative brochure targeted to different sectors (from individuals to maritime, plastics industry and tourism sectors). This brochure, entitled ‘Stopping marine litter together! Each and every one of us can contribute in keeping our coasts and seas litter free!’, provides essential information on the marine litter issue (sources, composition and impacts) and suggestions on how one can contribute to tackling this growing pressure
To complement the Educational Pack, MARLISCO developed and run asynchronous e-learning course, on how to practically apply the Pack with learners.
The project has elaborated and finalised a 32-page document that showcases the MARLISCO experiences and contributes to an improved understanding of the science-society nexus, while setting a precedent for effective use of knowledge towards sustainable and responsible individual and collective actions.
Project Context and Objectives:
Marine environments are central to human well being, but they are also extensively threatened by our activities. On a global scale more than 70% of our planet’s surface is covered by seawater, supporting a wide range of habitats and a great diversity of life. Humans rely heavily on the seas for their natural resources including food (fish and shellfish), transport and recreation, and more than half of the world’s population now live close to the sea. Unfortunately the marine environment is also extensively used as a convenient dumping ground for domestic and industrial waste, both directly and via river and atmospheric inputs, leading to potential negative ecological and economic impacts. These conflicting pressures are increasing in parallel with economic and population growth, which is expected to lead to increased consumption and waste production, if society follows a business-as-usual approach. Hence there is an urgent need to better manage and regulate our use of the marine environment in a sustainable manner in order to safeguard the maritime economy for future generations. Such considerations are central to the development and implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy to promote Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive growth. Understanding human perceptions, choices and behaviours is central to addressing this complex issue.
There has been growing awareness of the problem of marine litter in recent years by scientists, industry, policy makers and environmental NGOs. There has been considerable recent media attention and associated interest from the general public. Marine litter can have significant impacts on both coastal and maritime economic activities and on sensitive coastal and marine habitats and organisms.
There are significant regional and local differences in the types and quantities of waste entering the marine environment. This usually reflects the relative importance of key factors such as urbanisation, tourism, shipping and fishing activities. Marine litter is widespread globally and European seas and coasts are no exception, with widespread reports of debris on shorelines and in the water column.
Plastics enter the marine environment from a wide variety of sources. Direct inputs from land include: poorly managed sewage systems and storm drains; wind-blown debris from agricultural land, industry, land-fill and urban areas near the coast; tourism and recreational use of the coast including tourism (discarded food wrappers and drinks bottles) and recreational fishing (loss of mono-filament lines and hooks); coastal erosion (building materials); urban and industrial development along major rivers with poorly managed waste disposal. In some cases discreet sources can be identified, allowing the introduction of mitigation measures relatively easily. For example, greater investment in waste water treatment may allow larger items of debris to be removed before entering storm drains. However, such hard-engineering solutions can be very expensive, at a time when funding is scarce. A more cost-effective solution would be to reduce the quantities of litter entering the waste stream. This means changing attitudes and behaviours of those sectors and sections of the population who allow litter to enter drainage systems. Sanitary waste is often found on coastlines close to urban centres, having been flushed down toilets. This can have implications for public health and tourism, requiring municipalities to spend scarce resources on beach clean-ups. This is where education of the public becomes critical. Hence communicating the problems associated with marine litter more widely within society, via educational activities, has a key role in resolving some aspects of the problem. An example of good practice here is the UK Marine Conservation Societies ‘bag it and bin it’ campaign.
An important indirect source of marine litter comes from merchant shipping. Discarding of plastics and many other forms of material is controlled under MARPOL Annex V6. Dumping of plastics is banned altogether and ships have to maintain waste logs. But, the Convention is difficult to enforce and litter is often discarded over the side.
This source of marine litter also has a land-based component because implementation depends on having effective shore-side facilities to receive waste. If these are inadequate, or if the port imposes a high fee for use, then there is less incentive for ships’ officers to comply. In addition the ship’s crew may not understand the consequences of their actions. Providing and using waste reception facilities may depend on improving communication with the local municipality or recycling industry, as well as improving education in the shipping sector from ship’s cook to shipping magnate. This provides a good example of why a more joined-up approach could achieve considerable benefits. An example comes from the fishing sector. Providing shore-side reception facilities has allowed schemes such as Fishing for Litter to develop. This voluntary scheme encourages fishers to land litter they pick up in their nets.
One category of plastic waste found on beaches and in the ocean is plastic resin pellets, with a diameter of the order of a few millimetres, sometimes referred to as ‘Mermaid’s Tears’. These are used by the industry as a feed-stock in the production of everyday plastic items. They occur in the marine environment as a result of accidental loss at sea and poorly controlled handling on land. Industry has responded by introducing good practice guidelines to reduce
loss of resin pellets to the environment, under the ‘Operation Clean Sweep’7 initiative. The quantity of pellets found in the marine environment is now declining. Hence, improved land-based industrial management can help reduce inputs of litter to the sea.
Resin pellets are one type of small particles of plastic found in the ocean. These have become known as micro-plastics (Thompson et al. 2004), defined as any fragment less than 5 μm.
The actual impact of these fragments on marine organisms is very poorly understood. There is the potential for particles to be ingested, physically blocking or otherwise damaging the digestive tract or other organs (Browne et al. 2008; Thompson et al. 2004). However, of more concern is the tendency for plastics to absorb persistent organic pollutants (POPs) that could subsequently be transferred to and accumulate in many marine organisms, particularly those at higher trophic levels (i.e. top predators), especially in fat and oil (e.g. marine mammals, oily fish). These chemicals are widespread in the ocean, at very low levels, as a result of human activity on land and at sea.
Absorption into plastic particles can result in a million-fold increase in concentration and this offers a potential vector for increasing the concentration of POPs in biota (Mato et al. 2001; Ogata et al. 2009; Teuten et al. 2007; Teuten et al. 2009). There is also concern that chemicals incorporated into plastic products during manufacture to increase functionality might also be released to wildlife if the plastic is ingested (Oehlmann et al. 2009). The potential for chemical transfer has implications for the breeding success of populations of some marine species and for human health in communities dependent on a seafood diet (Teuten et al. 2009. A third category of microplastics that are released into the ocean are particles that are deliberately created to produce products used for a variety of cleaning processes. These range from sand-size pellets used in industrial cleaning (e.g. ‘sand-blasting’ the outside of buildings) to micro- and nano-sized particles used in a range of toothpastes, hand cleaners and facial scrubs. The fate and impact of these nano-polymers in the marine environment is largely unknown.
Attitude and behaviour change across sectors is central to the issues surrounding marine litter. As the analysis above has shown, many different actors contribute to the problem. Industry employees need to act in compliance with production guidelines; managers make investment decisions; sea captains implement waste policies with their crew and individuals purchase products and throw away waste every day. Psychological research has identified the most powerful determinants of behaviour change: attitudes towards the issue and potential solutions; perceived control and feasibility of solutions; perceived responsibilities and social norms (e.g. Darnton, 2008; Maio et al., 2007). Raising problem awareness and suggesting solutions are optimal conditions for behaviour change, although barriers need to be considered. Problem awareness on its own is problematic because it can trigger denial and avoidance, especially when the problem is very complex and involves multiple actors. Similarly, messages that are too emotional (e.g. by triggering fear) can prevent engagement right from the start.
Managing human impacts on the marine environment presents challenges quite different to those on land. The seas are a ‘commons’ lacking the explicit natural boundaries that are a fundamental part of management on land; the problems associated with this lack of boundaries have been long recognised by fisheries scientists. In terms of spatial extent the vast majority of the marine environment is ‘hidden’ beneath the sea surface and so the damage that can be caused by the dumping of waste and the extraction of resources is not readily visible either. Hence while there is a substantial body of scientific evidence on extent to which marine habitats are challenged and threatened by the actions of mankind (e.g. Thompson et al. 2002) there is a substantive disconnect between the perceptions of individuals about their actions at a local scale and the potential for subsequent harm to the marine environment which infrequently occurs at a regional scale (Polunin 2008). Recent evidence suggests, however, that simple educational and information interventions can increase marine awareness regarding marine litter and fishsustainability (e.g. Wyles, Pahl et al., 2010)
The continuing problem of damage by litter to the marine environment has multiple and complex causes that will require imaginative and innovative solutions, utilising both the technical and social spheres. Introducing more legislation, financial punishments or rewards, is not, in itself, an adequate response. The current situation mainly results from our continuing inclination to treat the ocean as a convenient place to dispose of unwanted materials. A range of measures is needed to help reduce the quantity of litter entering the oceans, including actions by manufacturing industry (for example Operation Clean Sweep), by industrial end users (for example fishing for litter) and by the general public (to dispose of litter properly). On the whole these measures are currently applied at relatively local scales within the EU and there is a clear need to illustrate examples of good practice and to share
them.
At present the problems associated with marine litter are exacerbated by a combination of : i) a lack of awareness of the extent of the problem amongst the various stakeholders, including the general public; ii) a lack of awareness of potential solutions for addressing the problem; iii) a lack of communication mechanisms between the different sectors, and in particular between scientists and wider society; iv) a lack of consistent and harmonised production,
waste management and re-cycling processes; v) a lack of effective enforcement of legislation (e.g. MARPOL); and, vi) differing national policies and regional and local practises – these can restrict the introduction of innovative waste management solutions at appropriate scales, due to the imposition of administrative responsibilities and boundaries.
The development of ‘modern’ plastics such as polystyrene began in the first half of the 19th Century but plastics only started to be used on an industrial scale from midway through the 20th century (Thompson et al., 2009). Global production increased from 1.5 million tonnes in 1950 to 245 million tonnes by 2008, at a growth rate of 9 per cent, with Europe producing 25 per cent8. Per capita use of plastics is expected to reach 140 kg per year in Europe by
2015, with approximately 40 per cent being used for packaging (Barnes et al., 2009). There are many advantages of using plastics over alternatives such as metal, glass and timber (Andrady& Neal, 2009). The increasing use of plastics in road vehicles and aircraft has brought about significant reductions in weight and hence reductions in the emissions of CO2. Single-use plastic shopping bags have a lower environmental impact than equivalent paper bags, based on product life-cycle analysis, in terms of energy and resource use (PWC/Ecobilan, 2004). The problem arises when the plastic bag is allowed to escape into the environment. There are very significant differences across Europe in the rates of plastic re-cycling and re-use. For example in 2008, more than 80 per cent of waste plastic
was recovered (i.e. re-cycled or used for energy generation) in 7 EU countries, Norway and Switzerland, whereas the UK and several other EU countries recovered 25 per cent or less (EuPC, EPRO, EuPR&PlasticsEurope, 2009). Approximately 4.4 million tonnes of waste plastic was collected for recycling in the EU in 2006, with 12 per cent being exported to Asia. There are significant differences in production and use of plastics in different sectors. According to DG ENV9, packaging accounts for >63% of plastic waste, with the second ranked being building and construction at 6%. Plastic bottles have relatively high recycling rates, with 40 per cent of PET (polyethylene teraphthalate) bottles being recycled. Sorting mixed wastes for recycling can be problematic but there are many examples of innovation that offer hope of significant improvement Hopewell et al., 2009). Clearly there is the potential for recognising where and how solutions have been developed and putting in place mechanisms for sharing this best practice across Europe.
Objectives
The main objectives of the MARLISCO project is to increase the awareness of the consequences of societal behaviour in relation to waste production and management on marine socio-ecological systems, to promote co-responsibility among the different actors, to define a more sustainable collective vision, and facilitate grounds for concerted actions through the successful implementation of the MMLAP.
The main focus is to provide and evaluate mechanisms to enable society to perceive the impact of litter on the marine environment, to identify the land-based activities that are involved and collectively arrive at solutions to reduce that impact – in particular solutions that can be implemented locally but have a regional effect.
Specific objectives:
1. To provide a review of current understanding of the sources, type, distribution and fate of marine litter in Europe’s Sea. This will provide an evidence base to support appropriate actions and to provide a baseline against which change can be measured.
2. To provide an evaluation of key stakeholder perceptions of marine litter, assess current practices and potential solutions, and measure the effectiveness of the Action Plan at changing attitudes and perceptions.
3. To develop a web based portal to promote the Action Plan, provide a source of information on marine litter, stimulate discussion and disseminate the results of the Co-ordination Action.
4. To provide a platform for structured dialogue among the key stakeholders from industry, end users, science and society, in 12 European countries. This will help to identify and resolve barriers that currently retard the adoption of good practice.
5. To develop a video contest in schools in 14 countries around the European Seas in which children will be encouraged to develop short videos about the issue, embodying a multi-disciplinary process of getting in touch with the problem and addressing potential solutions as they see them.
6. To identify good practice and facilitate its adoption via a range of disseminating materials aimed at specific sectors and present them to evaluation during the stakeholder fora.
7. To increase awareness and empower general public and children through a series of national educational activities and innovative communication tools, while facilitating the integration of their views in the platforms of dialogue
Project Results:
Since MARLISCO is a public engagement and awareness raising project and not a scientific one, the content of this paragraph has been merged with the “impact” section content related.
Potential Impact:
MARLISCO has contributed to set a clear picture regarding Marine litter in each of the European Regional Seas as well as to towards a better understanding of the science-society nexus and provided material to translate research-based. The project included a review on distribution, quantities and types, sources, and impacts of marine litter; a summary of current methods of monitoring and assessment for ML; a review of existing policies that may be applied to mitigate the impact of ML. Results from WP1 were made available in the form of three reports summarising the outcomes.
MARLISCO produced 3 reports.
1 ‘Understanding of the distribution quantities and types of marine litter’
This activity and report aimed to review the current state of information and understanding in the distribution, quantities and types of marine litter in European Seas. It combines a traditional review of published literature with a survey amongst national partners of monitoring or survey and assessment activities in EU Member States. The literature review provides representative examples of the effects of litter on the marine and coastal environment, illustrating regional differences. It also considers potential negative ecological and socio-economic impacts of marine litter. In addition a summary of national surveys from official monitoring, NGOs or local authorities and R&D activities by MSFD regions was included in this report. It also shows the type of environmental compartments included in such surveys indicating the point of contact or relevant link to find further details. The report outlines limitations and gaps in the current state of knowledge and highlights some popular misconceptions relating to marine litter.
Kershaw PJ, Hartley B, Garnacho E, RC Thompson 2013. Review of the current state of understanding of the distribution, quantities and types of marine litter. Deliverable D1.1 report. MARLISCO project. (EC FP7 Coordinated and support action, SIS-MML-289042), 2013, 42.
2 ‘Methods to Monitor and Assess Marine Litter’
The report provides an overview and summary of possible approaches, internationally agreed monitoring methods and protocols. The guidance is also intended to support litter monitoring by the general public or other non-research trained persons and includes links to relevant sources of information.
Maes T, Garnacho E. 2013. Summary of current methods of monitoring and assessment for marine litter. Deliverable D1.2 report. MARLISCO project. MARine Litter in Europe Seas: Social AwarenesS and COResponsibility. (EC FP7 Coordinated and support action, SIS-MML-289042).
3‘Policies that may be applied to mitigate the impact of marine litter’
Existing policies that directly or indirectly may be applied to mitigate the impact of marine litter are reviewed to identify where policy gaps might. The report also examines which actions and policies specifically designed to deal with marine litter reduction may be associated with legally-binding or ‘hard’ mechanisms (implemented under international, regional, EU or national legislation) or non legally- binding ‘soft’ mechanisms, under a range of formal or informal agreements.
Kershaw PJ, Alcaro L, Garnacho E, Doyle T, Maes T, Painting S. 2013. Review of existing policies that may be applied to mitigate the impact of marine litter. Deliverable report D1.3. MARLISCO project. MARine Litter in Europe Seas: Social AwarenesS and CO-Responsibility. (EC FP7 Coordinated and support action, SIS-MML-289042).
Processes and solutions – moving towards better practice
MARLISCO has identified 72 best practices to reduce marine litter. The best practices have been evaluated through a novel approach: the practices served as a tool to enhance the active participation and build capacity in key actors through the implementation of the innovative, dedicatedly-developed decision support tool, DeCyDe-4-Marlisco. The key ‘preference’ attributes of successful marine litter management practices have been identified during the analysis and provided a snapshot of the key characteristics of the recorded best practices as a means of helping the reader, and particularly decision makers, recognise what would make their marine litter management efforts more successful and more effective in minimising the amount of marine litter in European Seas. A google map with pins on the practices has been developed indicating info on all these practices in order to make access more easy. The paper under the title “A novel best practices approach: The MARLISCO case”, by Xenia I. Loizidou, Michael I. Loizides, Demetra L. Orthodoxou, has been published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, vol.88 issues 1-2, 15 November 2014, p.118-128. Until June 2014 the paper had 280 downloads (as reported by ELSEVIER). Already, more than 5 cases of MARLSICO Best Practices have been reported to be implemented in other countries, citing MARLISCO Best Practice report and analysis.
The Marine Litter Data Base: Data have a very important role to play in addressing the issue of marine litter, since they allow to understand which are the main types of litter found in specific beaches/ countries/ locations and how these may vary according to the season or other factors. This information allows us to identify the main sources of marine litter and thus to implement better and more targeted solutions to address litter from these sources. The “MARLISCO Marine Litter Database”, is an additional means of further disseminating project products and activities. It is an interactive database, developed to collate all the litter data that partners have captured during the project as a result of the clean-up activities initiated to raise awareness about the marine litter issue. The database has been developed with an interactive map interface that allows the user to pinpoint the clean-up locations. The database also allows users to interrogate the data to get information on specific types of waste or specific locations. It is envisaged that this marine litter database will continue to be populated with data even after the end of the project and will thus become a very sustainable project deliverable. Co-operation with Ocean Conservancy has already been promoted.
MARLISCO has developed a user-friendly “what-to-do: problem-processes-solution” Guide for stakeholders, decision-makers and key actors on tips and means to manage and reduce marine litter. Using the clusters identified during the analysis of the recorded best practices as the backbone, the guide outlines the main actions that different stakeholder groups and key actors can take, while at the same time presenting practical examples that support the implementation efforts, help transfer knowledge, experience and methods from elsewhere, and present networking and cooperation opportunities. The guide has been graphically designed by a professional, to make it as attractive and user friendly as possible, and thus promote its uptake. An ISBN number was procured and a QR Code was developed and inserted into the Guide. The QR code takes users to the MARLISCO website where the Guide is uploaded.
The Guide is available into the following eight languages: Arabic (by MIO-ECSDE), Bulgarian (UBBSLA), Hebrew (by Zalul, Israeli environmental organisation external to the partnership), German (by EUCC-D), Greek (by ISOTECH), Italian (by Provincia di Teramo), Portuguese (by FCT-UNL) and Turkish (by TUDAV).. This gives the project important added value and significantly increases the outreach and sustainability of MARLISCO, since the MARLSICO “what-to-do: problem-processes-solution” Guide, will be used in so many languages and in countries outside the MARLSISCO partnership. This also creates advanced networking potentials, for common actions on combating marine litter.
Two ‘big book’ versions of the Guide (A2 size on PVC) have also been printed, one in English and one in Greek, and have been incorporated into the awareness-raising activities in Cyprus, by becoming an additional element of the Exhibition.
MARLISCO project has assessed society’s perceptions about marine litter and evaluated the impact of a number of educational and outreach activities with a range of stakeholder groups across Europe. Gauging people’s baseline perceptions and assessing the effectiveness of communication and engagement attempts is critical if we are to develop better strategies to improve understanding about the problem and solutions surrounding marine litter and influence behavioural change. To achieve this, MARLISCO developed a range of social surveys applicable to a variety of participants, including children, the general public and educators, and prepared several publically available reports documenting the methods and key findings.
A) SURVEYING EUROPEAN STAKEHOLDER PERCEPTIONS
MARLISCO conducted an extensive European-wide survey on awareness and perceptions about marine litter. More specifically, the survey sought to examine individuals’ understanding about the quantity, location, causes and consequences of marine litter, perceived risk and responsibility, and intentions to engage in solutions. The survey was launched in 16 coastal countries targeting key sectors, including the manufacturing industry, retailers, coastal and marine industry, waste management, government and policy makers, environmental organizations, the media, the education sector and the general public. A total of 3748 respondents completed the survey, and results enabled a better understanding of the barriers and opportunities in understanding this issue and engaging in effective solutions. Detailed results are available in the project report “Baseline Evaluation of Stakeholder perceptions and attitudes towards issues surrounding marine litter”.
A snapshot of the survey results shows that 87% of respondents agreed that “marine litter is an important problem”; 88% of respondents disagreed that “marine litter is only a problem for coastal communities”; 23% of respondents agreed that “marine litter is a future environmental threat rather than a present one”. In other words, people are concerned about marine litter overall and acknowledge that it is a problem for everyone, but are somewhat inclined to see it as a future threat. Further analysis of the survey results reveals that people’s knowledge can often lag behind the state of scientific data, even despite much media coverage of the issue. For example survey respondents correctly identified that the majority of items of marine litter are plastic, but still greatly underestimated the actual percentage of marine litter that was plastic – and this was true across a number of stakeholder groups.
B) EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF EDUCATION AND OUTREACH
A fundamental component of the MARLISCO project was the evaluation of the educational and engagement activities that were conducted between 2012 and 2015 with a number of stakeholder groups. Throughout the evaluation process, MARLISCO applied principles and methods from the social sciences in the design and implementation of social surveys to measure the impact of participation in the national fora, video competition, public exhibitions and an E-learning course to accompany pedagogical resources for educators.
The evaluations helped assess whether and how each activity changed people’s understanding, attitudes and behaviour. The evaluations demonstrates the potential for engaging different populations (the general public, children, educators and key stakeholders) in order to raise awareness about marine litter, increase understanding and encourage commitment to solutions. Detailed results from each survey evaluation are presented in the project’s evaluation report “Evaluation of specific educational and outreach activities related to marine litter”. It is crucial that educational activities are evaluated in order to gauge their success and provide an evidence base for future design and practice.
Impact of the National Fora. The national fora were evaluated with a short survey that participants completed before and then again after they attended the event. It was designed to assess participants’ level of concern, feelings of efficacy, responsibility and motivation, perceptions about solutions and their personal intentions to engage in actions to reduce the potential causes of marine litter. Results revealed that after participating in the fora, individuals felt significantly more responsible, more able to help, and that their actions would be more effective compared to before the fora. Participants’ intentions to engage in several solutions to reduce marine litter also increased significantly. The National Fora are a good example of an activity that can engage multiple sectors and increase sense of personal responsibility, efficacy and support for solutions.
Impact of the Video Contest. A similar ‘before-after’ method was implemented to determine the impact that the video contest had on youngsters’ understanding of the causes and consequences of marine litter and their level of action. Results indicate that after participating in the video contest, students’ concern about the problem, their understanding of the various causes and negative impacts, and their practical actions to reduce marine litter significantly increased. These results are largely consistent with a pilot survey conducted with UK children, results of which are published under the title “Marine litter education boosts children’s understanding and self-reported actions”, by Bonny L. Hartley, Richard C. Thompson, and Sabine Pahl (2015) in Marine Pollution Bulletin, vol. 90, p. 209-217 (2015)”. Since initial ‘in press’ online publication in November 2014 (and up to July 2015), this article has been viewed or downloaded 656 times (according to Elsevier statistics).
The MARLISCO video contest is a good example of an educational activity that can foster a sense of citizenship and ownership in the younger generation and give them an active voice in such a societal problem. In addition, the videos themselves served as tools that have been widely used to inform and trigger awareness in a wider audience - indeed in the evaluation survey, this was one of the key suggestions that children made as to what should be done next.
Impact of E-Learning Course for Educators. A third ‘before-after’ survey was developed to evaluate whether MARLISCO’s e-learning course and educational pack increased educators’ understanding of the issue and their level of confidence, motivation and intention to integrate the topic into their formal or non-formal teaching practice. Results indicate that the e-course had a positive impact on educators’ confidence in their skills and abilities to teach about marine litter. After completing the course, educators also indicated that they intended to increase the amount of marine litter education they provide, develop more lessons and activities about the topic, and encourage other educators in their network to integrate marine litter education and the MARLISCO EduPack into their teaching. This is particularly encouraging because this will maximise the potential for the training and resources to be distributed more widely and influence education practice.
The e-course represents an excellent tool to build the capacities of educators in applying the educational pack and enable them to integrate marine litter into their teaching. Starting from the contents of the educational pack as basic teaching material the course treats learners as experts that bring in their own ideas to share with others and results in jointly generated outcomes for which the learners feel a high level of ownership. The e-course provides resources, techniques and ideas to facilitate teaching whilst increasing the confidence level of the trainees.
Visitor perceptions at National Exhibition. Finally, the survey developed for the public exhibitions provided a snapshot of what visitors recalled as the most memorable aspect of the exhibits, and recorded their level of concern about marine litter and the number of action pledges they were prepared to make. Results indicate that the majority of visitors to the exhibition reported being extremely concerned about the issue. Visitors also made many pledges to take actions to reduce marine litter and be part of the solution – of the 1842 visitors surveyed at the exhibition between 2013 and 2015, 88% pledged to avoid using plastic bags in the supermarket, 74% pledged to buy items with less packaging, and 52% pledge to encourage family and friends to make similar changes that will benefit the environment. These findings indicate what the European general public will pledge to do to reduce marine litter when visiting and learning about the issue.
The findings from the large scale social surveys and evaluations Plymouth University has conducted within the MARLISCO project have contributed to informing recommendations for effective communication and engagement with stakeholders about marine litter, and support future efforts to influence attitude and behavioural change. Insights from this work have been summarised in the MARLISCO brochure prepared by Plymouth University, “Hartley, B. L., Holland, M., Pahl, S., & Thompson, R. C. (2015). How to Communicate with Stakeholders about Marine Litter – A Short Guide to Influencing Behavioural Change. UK: Plymouth University Press”. The guide also includes partner feedback reflecting on the stakeholder engagement process regarding the successes and challenges experienced during communication and interaction with different stakeholders. It is hoped that this guide will be a useful resource for academic and applied audiences across the marine, environmental and social sciences, as well as for industry, Non-Governmental Organisations, and government organisations. The guide design is currenlty being enhanced, an ISBN number has been obtained, and 150 copies will be printed for distribution.
Empowering Society through Informed Debate
MARLISCO has organised and run a series of 12 national marine litter fora across Europe between April 2014 and April 2015. The Fora were to raise awareness of the marine litter issue and find potential long term solutions. This activity was undertaken through engagement of stakeholders with an interest in, or responsibility for, some aspect of reducing the quantity of litter entering the oceans across Europe and by gathering stakeholder’s opinions on how to address marine litter in their country.
A common forum format to support implementation of the national events, guided through the planning stages, stakeholder engagement and the actual event was developed, based on participatory methodology promoting large-scale public involvement. The format was designed to be flexible, allowing individual MARLISCO partners to modify aspects in reaction to relevant on-going, current events in their countries e.g. in support of and to compliment national implementation of MSFD processes, or to take advantage of national, cultural characteristics that may be beneficial to the success of the event and to include lessons learned from MARLISCO partners that already conducted a forum.
All national fora used the MARLISCO animation ‘Impacts and Sources of Marine Litter’, which was developed specifically for the MARLISCO marine litter fora with artist Jane Lee and allowed transfer of latest scientific knowledge in an accessible way and focused discussion on current scientific, technological and societal positions with respect to marine litter. The MARLISCO animation is available online via YouTube since April 2014 with over 11,700 views to date (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=017bBeXhYz4).
Twelve European countries implemented a national forum on marine litter. Across Europe the events engaged about 1540 stakeholders from multiple sectors with 644 live audience members attending and reaching about a further 896 online participants though the use of interactive live webcasts. Forum participants across Europe represented a wide range of sectors (e.g. Research/Education, NGO, Government, Maritime Activities, Local Authorities, Media/Communication, Tourism/Recreation, Waste Management, Plastics Industry, Retail, Marketing), which provided an opportunity to utilise sector specific know-how during the event and allowed for mutual learning between forum stakeholders.
Across all twelve events the majority of submitted actions, suggestions and ideas relate to recognised concepts and approaches that address issues of waste and litter in general such as increasing Education/Awareness (29.01%), Appropriate Disposal of Waste (13.83%) and the Reduce (19.19%), Reuse (9.37%), Recycle (9.82%), Recover (3.57%) and Redesign (6.69%) concepts. These links indicate that the overall approaches and concepts are not only well known but suggest that more and definite measures and actions targeting marine litter are required to utilise these established approaches and concepts to effectively address marine litter across Europe.
Participants' perceptions pre- and post-events were assessed through quantitative evaluation by the MARLISCO team in Plymouth University under WP2. Results indicated that the events were viewed as a positive experience and there were some statistically significant differences between participants' pre- and post-fora perceptions and intentions concerning issues of marine litter (Hartley et al., 2015).
Views from European Youngsters
The European Video competition that MARLISCO launched in 2013 represented a specific activity to engage youngsters and trigger awareness by actively encouraging them to get in touch with the issue with a critical and creative perspective. In total, 379 videos were submitted, from the 14 participating coastal countries, reflective the direct involvement of 2123 youngsters.
The project foresaw mechanisms to exploit some of the best videos as outreach awareness tools, as they represent a message from the new generation on the issue of marine litter. This included a “public vote” element in the selection of the winners in every country, by placing the TOP national videos on social networks such as Facebook and on YouTube. Some of the videos had wide outreach, reaching 1.000 “views” within the first week.
An attractive “Teaser” showcasing all the 14 national winning videos was produced and throughout 2014 and 2015 actively disseminated, together with the individual videos, in several national and European events and channels, reaching a wide and diversified audience. For example, the winning videos were screened in loop during the European Green Week (3-5 June 2014) that counted with 2.000 participants and the “Teaser” was premiered during the plenary session of the 7th European Maritime Day Ceremony (EMDC, 19th May 2014)[1]in Bremen, Germany, with over 1300 participants. The teams behind each of the 14 winning national videos were invited to take part in the EMDC event and a 2-day joint, intercultural and facilitated programme in the city of Bremen, organised by MARLISCO.
In terms of impacts, based on the surveys to participating youngsters before and after their involvement in the making of the videos, their engagement in the Video Contest resulted in an increase in the youngsters’ concern about the problem, their understanding of the various causes and negative impacts, and their practical actions to reduce marine litter. Furthermore, the 80 youngsters that took part in the EMDC-Bremen programme had a very interesting and rewarding experience, not only because they received public recognition during such a high-level event but also for the socio-cultural opportunity to meet and interact with other European young people.
Close to the conclusion of the project (May 2015) the 14 winning videos had received a total of approximately 33.500 views on Youtube, had been screened at 6 European events and over 30 national ones, including most of the MARLISCO National Fora and at some of the venues of MARLISCO exhibition. The Video Contest and its products impacted not only the youngsters directly involved but also their supervising teachers, probably their families, the ambassadors and Jury members setup in each country, and all the thousands of people that watched or will be watching them in the future.
[1] Video recording of the MARLISCO session at the 7th EMDC:http://ec.europa.eu/maritimeaffairs/maritimeday/sites/mare-emd/files/event-downloads/2014-marlisco-contest.mp4
Education, Outreach and Synthesis
As with many complex problems of today, effective solutions to the thorny issue of Marine Litter require coordinated actions at many levels (International, European, National, Local) by many actors ranging from the industry; the water users; the waste management sector; the municipalities; policy makers, the scientific community; NGOs and the media up to the general public and particularly young people.
In this context MARLISCO aimed at constructively connecting science to society by ‘translating’ current state-of-the-art marine litter knowledge into relevant awareness raising and educational tools, that can be used to motivate people and trigger sustainable actions in the partner countries.
The compilation of a multilingual Educational Pack targeting primarily learners aged 10-15 years has been implemented. The Pack entitled ‘Know, Feel, Act to Stop Marine Litter’ has been compiled by using a bottom-up participatory approach. The final 120-page pack contains 17 teaching and learning activities grouped in four sections that address the characteristics, the sources, the impacts, as well as the possible ways to tackle marine litter. Each activity consists of a specific learning task or game (4 pages) and a worksheet for students (1 page). In line with the principles of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) the pack examines the environmental, social, cultural and economic aspects of the issue. The activities can be applied within a school class but also in non-formal educational settings, e.g. in outdoor programs, museums, aquariums, etc. They can be applied as single exercises, or in clusters depending on the target group needs. Given the broad geographic outreach of MARLISCO, the diverse national and regional specificities have been taken into account leading to slightly differentiated versions of the pack (different photographs, cases studies and marine litter stories), thus maximizing its appeal and relevance. The pack is now available online in 14 European languages, plus a non-European one, Arabic that has been prepared with the financial support of UNEP/MAP and will be soon available. The impact of the Packs is currently measured with the number of page views at www.marlisco.eu/education.en.htmlwhere the packs are uploaded (2,806 page views and 1,710 unique page views for the period 01/01 – 30/06/2015 with the peak towards the end, when the language versions were being progressively uploaded).
Another appealing multilingual MARLISCO output that attempts to translate science as well as policies to meaningful, yet not paternalistic learning content is an interactive e-game; a kind of a Role Playing Game (RPG) using comics, entitled “Sea Dream Team”. The game, that has been developed by MEDIA TOOLS offers its online players the opportunity to discover eight (8) characters representing sectors critical for marine litter (e.g. fisherman, marina manager, beach-user, etc.) and help them -in a fun and engaging way- to choose the most responsible behaviour to deal with specific situations, in which marine litter can be either generated or prevented. The game scenaria are simulations of real-world events or processes designed with a problem solving and/or raising awareness approach. The scenaria were developed by MEDIA TOOLS with inputs from several NPs. The game has been finalized and can be played online in 15 languages: http://www.marlisco.eu/serious-game.en.html
Another output of MARLISCO with an outreach estimated to more than one hundred thousand people has been the awareness raising exhibition. The texts have been developed with contributions from NPs, who then undertook the translation and development of their adapted national versions. The proposed highly flexible, cost-effective, easily reproduced and zero waste layout of the exhibition enabled its national reproduction to better fit the partners’ needs. Since the end of 2013 the national versions of the exhibition have been travelling and displayed at many festivals, conferences, clean-ups and other events all around Europe. Its journey is truly remarkable as demonstrated in the online map (www.marlisco.eu/exhibition-journey-map.en.html). In many countries the exhibition will keep travelling and being displayed after the end of the MARLISCO project.
Besides the inherently designed outreach activities of MARLISCO, such as the video competition for youth, the national fora, the exhibition and the educational packs, the project has put a lot of effort to disseminate the MARLISCO messages through many other national awareness raising activitiesand initiatives. These activities range from visiting schools or giving lectures at university students; running contests (e.g. art contest in Italy and a tale contest in Portugal); organising workshops and teacher-trainings, numerous beach cleanups, taking part at massive festivals, conferences and press events; celebrating important International Days (Earth Day, Oceans Day, etc); printing informative brochures, posters, postcards and other promotional material, reproducing games (e.g. Marineopoly in Romania); running social media webpages devoted to the project (linkedin, fb, etc.). It is hard to measure and quantify the accumulative impact of all these activities, however it can definitely be stated that throughout the 3-year-long timeframe of the project NPs have made best use of all given opportunities to transmit the MARLISCO messages to hundreds of thousands of people across Europe. These messages will certainly keep echoing beyond the lifespan of the project ensuring an extended and amplified after-life effect of the project activities. During the entire lifetime of the MARLISCO project, the national activities have been feeding the “news area” of its webpage.
MARLISCO has defined the format, the structure and the content of an informative brochure targeted to different sectors (from individuals to maritime, plastics industry and tourism sectors). This brochure, entitled ‘Stopping marine litter together! Each and every one of us can contribute in keeping our coasts and seas litter free!’, provides essential information on the marine litter issue (sources, composition and impacts) and suggestions on how one can contribute to tackling this growing pressure. The aim of the brochure is not only to instil a sense of co-responsibility within the various stakeholder communities as co-contributors to the marine litter problem but also to foster a sense of empowerment and take up individual and/or collective actions. The brochure is now available online in English, a Greek version is almost finalised, while several partners have expressed their intentions to translate it in other European languages. The English hardcopies as well as all other national versions of this brochure are going to be promoted in conferences, festivals, etc. even after MARLISCO ends. The brochure is available here:www.marlisco.eu/tl_files/marlisco/Downloadables/WP%206/Annex1_MARLISCO_brochure.pdf
To complement the Educational Pack, MARLISCO developed and run asynchronous e-learning course, on how to practically apply the Pack with learners. The e-course replaced the originally foreseen face-to-face workshops in order to accommodate the increased demand for participation from many countries. Through the three rounds of the e-course that took place within MARLISCO duration, more than 320 participants from more than 28 countries have taken part. The course, which was entirely tailor-made to needs of the MARLISCO audience, is equivalent to 1.5-2 days face-to-face training workshop which is “flipped” to e-content and spread over a two-week period. The teachers, surfers, divers, activists, trainers, NGO officers, museum staff and university students that took part in it formed a dynamic and highly interactive mix of people with a genuine a deep care for the seas and coasts. The latter could possibly explain their commitment in the e-course content and the high completion rates (~50%), that is more than three times the average completion rate in Massive Open Online Courses -MOOCs (~15%). In total, through the e-course, hundreds of people have been intensively trained on the educational pack and are now able to integrate it in their professions. Moreover, as these people have already created informal communication networks (mail lists and f/b), the messages of the Pack and MARLISO, keep being widely disseminated even after the e-course is over. The high completion rates of the e-course certainly motivate MIO-ECSDE to repeat it even in the post-MARLISCO era. Quantitative and Qualitative results from the e-course can be found here: www.marlisco.eu/e-learning-course.en.html
Last but not least, the project has closely following up on all its developments within the different cluster of activities and has been also exploring options so as to ensure that the project synthesis will capture and appropriately reflect the lessons learned and the experiences gained by the project’s innovative approaches to connect science to society, using the emerging threat of marine litter as a vehicle. The project has elaborated and finalised a 32-page document that showcases the MARLISCO experiences and contributes to an improved understanding of the science-society nexus, while setting a precedent for effective use of knowledge towards sustainable and responsible individual and collective actions.
Webportal and dissemination platform of Marine Litter in European Seas
MARLISCO has created and developed a publicly accessible web portal and dissemination platform: www.marlisco.eu
The portal consolidates the outputs of the project from different sources, in different forms and formats and presents them through a single access point. The main intention of the portal is to provide transparent and comprehensive information on the topic of Marine Litter (sources, trends, challenges), including a wide set of links related to external sources, and to introduce potential solutions and best practices regarding marine litter pollution. Furthermore, the most important content elements and outputs of the project are collected on the website to make them visible and available for the general public. The portal connects people of the European Seas and beyond and invite its users to participate and actively contribute, bringing in own experiences and perspectives and enable mutual learning.
The homepage of MARLISCO contains a header and footer, matching the design of the project logo and serving as a frame for the presented information. The footer contains contact details of the project coordinator and shortcuts of web 2.0 applications to enable a direct and quick communication opportunity for visitors, who are interested to get in contact with the project partners. The internal area Basecamp is also linked in the footer. Pictures provided by the MARLISCO partners and the EUCC-D photo database were implemented on the homepage to make the portal appealing to its users and to visualise the problem of marine litter. The homepage gives an overview of all available content (menu), which was built up and adapted during the project time as well as a news section showing an update on current activities and on upcoming events (which is supported by an additional event calendar) from/in all countries. To highlight the special and main outputs of different work packages of the MARLISCO project, teaser boxes with short information and comprehensive graphics were also implemented on the homepage containing short cuts linking the user directly to the specific page. By choosing the navigation menu with main- and subpages, the user gets access to more detailed project information. This includes general material about the project set up, goals, approaches, partners and deliverables. Furthermore, these pages contain the main information about different work tasks of MARLISCO. Next to a general description in English, country specific information in national languages are also provided and displayed. Main products, which are displayed on the website, include for example the national fora, exhibition and video contests, the educational packs, best practices, the serious game and the final multimedia tool (web-documentary). Additional activities such as information about the e-learning courses, a marine litter database and an exhibition journey map were also uploaded.
In general, the MARLISCO website had approximately 100.000 unique page views since the start of the website. The top 3 pages visited were the video contest pages, the general information about the project pages and the education pages. The top 3 countries being active in MARLISCO were Italy, Portugal, and the UK. Acquisition: the top channels, through which the MARLISCO website was accessed were “organic search” (google search engine) ~50 %; “direct access” ~25 % and other referrals via internet sites and social media ~25 %. Besides using this specific website for dissemination, the MARLISCO project also maintained social media channels as Facebook and Twitter. The Facebook page was regularly updated with activities, events and outcomes and has more than 1.500 likes. It was also used as a platform for communication and connection with public users, to receive feedback and to answer questions and comments. Twitter was also used to announce big events and news and has 219 followers. Besides the main MARLISCO Facebook account some countries (UK, Denmark, Cyprus, France, Italy, Portugal Turkey Romania, Bulgaria, and Ireland) additionally had national Facebook accounts, increasing the online network community and ranging between 150 and 1300 likes. Social media channels as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and produced videos were used to additionally broaden the dissemination of information of MARLISCO and increasing its popularity and its network. Social media channels and the website were used for dissemination of the project content, however, all online platforms that were used within the project including projects income in turn were disseminated in press, publications and during all different activities and events that were conducted within the 3-years project time by each partner and each country and will be beyond the project’s duration time.
The MARLISCO website primarily highlights the most important content elements and outputs of the project from national events and activities, which were conducted during the duration of the project. The portal was designed, developed and maintained during the 3-years, leaving a complete pile of detailed information about the complex topic of marine litter. This gives the public the chance to understand what MARLISCO was all about (including the people who may not be familiar with the topic) and the opportunity to get the information they need as well as for the partners being able to share their content with each other and the user. Another advantage of the website is that it remains for at least 2 years, hosted by EUCC-D giving all countries the prospect to use the material further beyond the end of the project. The content can be further used to build up other platforms on marine litter, which is for example planned by EUCC-D in the near future. The MARLISCO project may be finished, the problem of marine litter still exists, which means that MARLISCO can be used as a solid basis for continuing working on the complex challenge of marine litter across Europe and across the world beyond the project time. The established contacts between the partners of different countries remain through the website and may provide the opportunity to further cooperate with each other in the future. Building up a publicly accessible website, summarising the whole project through one single access point is certainly an effective way of displaying activities, events and outcomes as well as disseminating the clear message of the project. It transports a variety of impacts of other fundamental MARLISCO work packages and outputs, it provides some guidance to users in a universe of fragmented and dispersed information, and it creates a bond between the partners and closely connects the project with the public.
List of Websites:
www.marlisco.eu
MARLISCO has contributed to set a clear picture regarding Marine litter in each of the European Regional Seas as well as to towards a better understanding of the science-society nexus and provided material to translate research-based. The project included a review on distribution, quantities and types, sources, and impacts of marine litter; a summary of current methods of monitoring and assessment for ML; a review of existing policies that may be applied to mitigate the impact of ML.
WP2 identified 72 best practices for the reduction of ML. It tells how the issue of ML is addressed and allows the identification of key attributes that make a ML minimisation practice a ‘best’ practice.
The “MARLISCO Marine Litter Database”, is an additional means of further disseminating project products and activities. It is an interactive database, developed to collate all the litter data that partners have captured during the project as a result of the clean-up activities initiated to raise awareness about the marine litter issue. The database has been developed with an interactive map interface that allows the user to pinpoint the clean-up locations. The database also allows users to interrogate the data to get information on specific types of waste or specific locations.
MARLISCO has developed a user-friendly “what-to-do: problem-processes-solution” (available in 8 languages) Guide for stakeholders, decision-makers and key actors on tips and means to manage and reduce marine litter. Using the clusters identified during the analysis of the recorded best practices as the backbone, the guide outlines the main actions that different stakeholder groups and key actors can take, while at the same time presenting practical examples that support the implementation efforts, help transfer knowledge, experience and methods from elsewhere, and present networking and cooperation opportunities
MARLISCO project has assessed society’s perceptions about marine litter and evaluated the impact of a number of educational and outreach activities with a range of stakeholder groups across Europe. Gauging people’s baseline perceptions and assessing the effectiveness of communication and engagement attempts is critical if we are to develop better strategies to improve understanding about the problem and solutions surrounding marine litter and influence behavioural change. To achieve this, MARLISCO developed a range of social surveys applicable to a variety of participants, including children, the general public and educators, and prepared several publically available reports documenting the methods and key findings.
MARLISCO conducted an extensive European-wide survey on awareness and perceptions about marine litter. Detailed results are available in the project report “Baseline Evaluation of Stakeholder perceptions and attitudes towards issues surrounding marine litter”. MARLISCO undertook the evaluation of the effectiveness of specific outreach and educational activities MARLISCO. Detailed results from each survey evaluation are presented in the project’s evaluation report “Evaluation of specific educational and outreach activities related to marine litter (Impact of National Fora, Impact of Video contest, Impact of E-Learning Courses for Educators, Visitors perception at National Exhibitions).
MARLISCO has organised and run a series of 12 national marine litter fora across Europe between April 2014 and April 2015. The Fora were to raise awareness of the marine litter issue and find potential long term solutions. This activity was undertaken through engagement of stakeholders with an interest in, or responsibility for, some aspect of reducing the quantity of litter entering the oceans across Europe and by gathering stakeholder’s opinions on how to address marine litter in their country.
The European Video competition that MARLISCO launched in 2013 represented a specific activity to engage youngsters and trigger awareness by actively encouraging them to get in touch with the issue with a critical and creative perspective. In total, 379 videos were submitted, from the 14 participating coastal countries, reflective the direct involvement of 2123 youngsters.
MARLISCO aimed at constructively connecting science to society by ‘translating’ current state-of-the-art marine litter knowledge into relevant awareness raising and educational tools, that can be used to motivate people and trigger sustainable actions in the partner countries. The compilation of a multilingual Educational Pack targeting primarily learners aged 10-15 years has been implemented
Another appealing multilingual MARLISCO output that attempts to translate science as well as policies to meaningful, yet not paternalistic learning content is an interactive e-game; a kind of a Role Playing Game (RPG) using comics, entitled “Sea Dream Team”.
Another tool of MARLISCO with an outreach estimated to more than one hundred thousand people has been the awareness raising exhibition.
MARLISCO has defined the format, the structure and the content of an informative brochure targeted to different sectors (from individuals to maritime, plastics industry and tourism sectors). This brochure, entitled ‘Stopping marine litter together! Each and every one of us can contribute in keeping our coasts and seas litter free!’, provides essential information on the marine litter issue (sources, composition and impacts) and suggestions on how one can contribute to tackling this growing pressure
To complement the Educational Pack, MARLISCO developed and run asynchronous e-learning course, on how to practically apply the Pack with learners.
The project has elaborated and finalised a 32-page document that showcases the MARLISCO experiences and contributes to an improved understanding of the science-society nexus, while setting a precedent for effective use of knowledge towards sustainable and responsible individual and collective actions.
Project Context and Objectives:
Marine environments are central to human well being, but they are also extensively threatened by our activities. On a global scale more than 70% of our planet’s surface is covered by seawater, supporting a wide range of habitats and a great diversity of life. Humans rely heavily on the seas for their natural resources including food (fish and shellfish), transport and recreation, and more than half of the world’s population now live close to the sea. Unfortunately the marine environment is also extensively used as a convenient dumping ground for domestic and industrial waste, both directly and via river and atmospheric inputs, leading to potential negative ecological and economic impacts. These conflicting pressures are increasing in parallel with economic and population growth, which is expected to lead to increased consumption and waste production, if society follows a business-as-usual approach. Hence there is an urgent need to better manage and regulate our use of the marine environment in a sustainable manner in order to safeguard the maritime economy for future generations. Such considerations are central to the development and implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy to promote Smart, Sustainable and Inclusive growth. Understanding human perceptions, choices and behaviours is central to addressing this complex issue.
There has been growing awareness of the problem of marine litter in recent years by scientists, industry, policy makers and environmental NGOs. There has been considerable recent media attention and associated interest from the general public. Marine litter can have significant impacts on both coastal and maritime economic activities and on sensitive coastal and marine habitats and organisms.
There are significant regional and local differences in the types and quantities of waste entering the marine environment. This usually reflects the relative importance of key factors such as urbanisation, tourism, shipping and fishing activities. Marine litter is widespread globally and European seas and coasts are no exception, with widespread reports of debris on shorelines and in the water column.
Plastics enter the marine environment from a wide variety of sources. Direct inputs from land include: poorly managed sewage systems and storm drains; wind-blown debris from agricultural land, industry, land-fill and urban areas near the coast; tourism and recreational use of the coast including tourism (discarded food wrappers and drinks bottles) and recreational fishing (loss of mono-filament lines and hooks); coastal erosion (building materials); urban and industrial development along major rivers with poorly managed waste disposal. In some cases discreet sources can be identified, allowing the introduction of mitigation measures relatively easily. For example, greater investment in waste water treatment may allow larger items of debris to be removed before entering storm drains. However, such hard-engineering solutions can be very expensive, at a time when funding is scarce. A more cost-effective solution would be to reduce the quantities of litter entering the waste stream. This means changing attitudes and behaviours of those sectors and sections of the population who allow litter to enter drainage systems. Sanitary waste is often found on coastlines close to urban centres, having been flushed down toilets. This can have implications for public health and tourism, requiring municipalities to spend scarce resources on beach clean-ups. This is where education of the public becomes critical. Hence communicating the problems associated with marine litter more widely within society, via educational activities, has a key role in resolving some aspects of the problem. An example of good practice here is the UK Marine Conservation Societies ‘bag it and bin it’ campaign.
An important indirect source of marine litter comes from merchant shipping. Discarding of plastics and many other forms of material is controlled under MARPOL Annex V6. Dumping of plastics is banned altogether and ships have to maintain waste logs. But, the Convention is difficult to enforce and litter is often discarded over the side.
This source of marine litter also has a land-based component because implementation depends on having effective shore-side facilities to receive waste. If these are inadequate, or if the port imposes a high fee for use, then there is less incentive for ships’ officers to comply. In addition the ship’s crew may not understand the consequences of their actions. Providing and using waste reception facilities may depend on improving communication with the local municipality or recycling industry, as well as improving education in the shipping sector from ship’s cook to shipping magnate. This provides a good example of why a more joined-up approach could achieve considerable benefits. An example comes from the fishing sector. Providing shore-side reception facilities has allowed schemes such as Fishing for Litter to develop. This voluntary scheme encourages fishers to land litter they pick up in their nets.
One category of plastic waste found on beaches and in the ocean is plastic resin pellets, with a diameter of the order of a few millimetres, sometimes referred to as ‘Mermaid’s Tears’. These are used by the industry as a feed-stock in the production of everyday plastic items. They occur in the marine environment as a result of accidental loss at sea and poorly controlled handling on land. Industry has responded by introducing good practice guidelines to reduce
loss of resin pellets to the environment, under the ‘Operation Clean Sweep’7 initiative. The quantity of pellets found in the marine environment is now declining. Hence, improved land-based industrial management can help reduce inputs of litter to the sea.
Resin pellets are one type of small particles of plastic found in the ocean. These have become known as micro-plastics (Thompson et al. 2004), defined as any fragment less than 5 μm.
The actual impact of these fragments on marine organisms is very poorly understood. There is the potential for particles to be ingested, physically blocking or otherwise damaging the digestive tract or other organs (Browne et al. 2008; Thompson et al. 2004). However, of more concern is the tendency for plastics to absorb persistent organic pollutants (POPs) that could subsequently be transferred to and accumulate in many marine organisms, particularly those at higher trophic levels (i.e. top predators), especially in fat and oil (e.g. marine mammals, oily fish). These chemicals are widespread in the ocean, at very low levels, as a result of human activity on land and at sea.
Absorption into plastic particles can result in a million-fold increase in concentration and this offers a potential vector for increasing the concentration of POPs in biota (Mato et al. 2001; Ogata et al. 2009; Teuten et al. 2007; Teuten et al. 2009). There is also concern that chemicals incorporated into plastic products during manufacture to increase functionality might also be released to wildlife if the plastic is ingested (Oehlmann et al. 2009). The potential for chemical transfer has implications for the breeding success of populations of some marine species and for human health in communities dependent on a seafood diet (Teuten et al. 2009. A third category of microplastics that are released into the ocean are particles that are deliberately created to produce products used for a variety of cleaning processes. These range from sand-size pellets used in industrial cleaning (e.g. ‘sand-blasting’ the outside of buildings) to micro- and nano-sized particles used in a range of toothpastes, hand cleaners and facial scrubs. The fate and impact of these nano-polymers in the marine environment is largely unknown.
Attitude and behaviour change across sectors is central to the issues surrounding marine litter. As the analysis above has shown, many different actors contribute to the problem. Industry employees need to act in compliance with production guidelines; managers make investment decisions; sea captains implement waste policies with their crew and individuals purchase products and throw away waste every day. Psychological research has identified the most powerful determinants of behaviour change: attitudes towards the issue and potential solutions; perceived control and feasibility of solutions; perceived responsibilities and social norms (e.g. Darnton, 2008; Maio et al., 2007). Raising problem awareness and suggesting solutions are optimal conditions for behaviour change, although barriers need to be considered. Problem awareness on its own is problematic because it can trigger denial and avoidance, especially when the problem is very complex and involves multiple actors. Similarly, messages that are too emotional (e.g. by triggering fear) can prevent engagement right from the start.
Managing human impacts on the marine environment presents challenges quite different to those on land. The seas are a ‘commons’ lacking the explicit natural boundaries that are a fundamental part of management on land; the problems associated with this lack of boundaries have been long recognised by fisheries scientists. In terms of spatial extent the vast majority of the marine environment is ‘hidden’ beneath the sea surface and so the damage that can be caused by the dumping of waste and the extraction of resources is not readily visible either. Hence while there is a substantial body of scientific evidence on extent to which marine habitats are challenged and threatened by the actions of mankind (e.g. Thompson et al. 2002) there is a substantive disconnect between the perceptions of individuals about their actions at a local scale and the potential for subsequent harm to the marine environment which infrequently occurs at a regional scale (Polunin 2008). Recent evidence suggests, however, that simple educational and information interventions can increase marine awareness regarding marine litter and fishsustainability (e.g. Wyles, Pahl et al., 2010)
The continuing problem of damage by litter to the marine environment has multiple and complex causes that will require imaginative and innovative solutions, utilising both the technical and social spheres. Introducing more legislation, financial punishments or rewards, is not, in itself, an adequate response. The current situation mainly results from our continuing inclination to treat the ocean as a convenient place to dispose of unwanted materials. A range of measures is needed to help reduce the quantity of litter entering the oceans, including actions by manufacturing industry (for example Operation Clean Sweep), by industrial end users (for example fishing for litter) and by the general public (to dispose of litter properly). On the whole these measures are currently applied at relatively local scales within the EU and there is a clear need to illustrate examples of good practice and to share
them.
At present the problems associated with marine litter are exacerbated by a combination of : i) a lack of awareness of the extent of the problem amongst the various stakeholders, including the general public; ii) a lack of awareness of potential solutions for addressing the problem; iii) a lack of communication mechanisms between the different sectors, and in particular between scientists and wider society; iv) a lack of consistent and harmonised production,
waste management and re-cycling processes; v) a lack of effective enforcement of legislation (e.g. MARPOL); and, vi) differing national policies and regional and local practises – these can restrict the introduction of innovative waste management solutions at appropriate scales, due to the imposition of administrative responsibilities and boundaries.
The development of ‘modern’ plastics such as polystyrene began in the first half of the 19th Century but plastics only started to be used on an industrial scale from midway through the 20th century (Thompson et al., 2009). Global production increased from 1.5 million tonnes in 1950 to 245 million tonnes by 2008, at a growth rate of 9 per cent, with Europe producing 25 per cent8. Per capita use of plastics is expected to reach 140 kg per year in Europe by
2015, with approximately 40 per cent being used for packaging (Barnes et al., 2009). There are many advantages of using plastics over alternatives such as metal, glass and timber (Andrady& Neal, 2009). The increasing use of plastics in road vehicles and aircraft has brought about significant reductions in weight and hence reductions in the emissions of CO2. Single-use plastic shopping bags have a lower environmental impact than equivalent paper bags, based on product life-cycle analysis, in terms of energy and resource use (PWC/Ecobilan, 2004). The problem arises when the plastic bag is allowed to escape into the environment. There are very significant differences across Europe in the rates of plastic re-cycling and re-use. For example in 2008, more than 80 per cent of waste plastic
was recovered (i.e. re-cycled or used for energy generation) in 7 EU countries, Norway and Switzerland, whereas the UK and several other EU countries recovered 25 per cent or less (EuPC, EPRO, EuPR&PlasticsEurope, 2009). Approximately 4.4 million tonnes of waste plastic was collected for recycling in the EU in 2006, with 12 per cent being exported to Asia. There are significant differences in production and use of plastics in different sectors. According to DG ENV9, packaging accounts for >63% of plastic waste, with the second ranked being building and construction at 6%. Plastic bottles have relatively high recycling rates, with 40 per cent of PET (polyethylene teraphthalate) bottles being recycled. Sorting mixed wastes for recycling can be problematic but there are many examples of innovation that offer hope of significant improvement Hopewell et al., 2009). Clearly there is the potential for recognising where and how solutions have been developed and putting in place mechanisms for sharing this best practice across Europe.
Objectives
The main objectives of the MARLISCO project is to increase the awareness of the consequences of societal behaviour in relation to waste production and management on marine socio-ecological systems, to promote co-responsibility among the different actors, to define a more sustainable collective vision, and facilitate grounds for concerted actions through the successful implementation of the MMLAP.
The main focus is to provide and evaluate mechanisms to enable society to perceive the impact of litter on the marine environment, to identify the land-based activities that are involved and collectively arrive at solutions to reduce that impact – in particular solutions that can be implemented locally but have a regional effect.
Specific objectives:
1. To provide a review of current understanding of the sources, type, distribution and fate of marine litter in Europe’s Sea. This will provide an evidence base to support appropriate actions and to provide a baseline against which change can be measured.
2. To provide an evaluation of key stakeholder perceptions of marine litter, assess current practices and potential solutions, and measure the effectiveness of the Action Plan at changing attitudes and perceptions.
3. To develop a web based portal to promote the Action Plan, provide a source of information on marine litter, stimulate discussion and disseminate the results of the Co-ordination Action.
4. To provide a platform for structured dialogue among the key stakeholders from industry, end users, science and society, in 12 European countries. This will help to identify and resolve barriers that currently retard the adoption of good practice.
5. To develop a video contest in schools in 14 countries around the European Seas in which children will be encouraged to develop short videos about the issue, embodying a multi-disciplinary process of getting in touch with the problem and addressing potential solutions as they see them.
6. To identify good practice and facilitate its adoption via a range of disseminating materials aimed at specific sectors and present them to evaluation during the stakeholder fora.
7. To increase awareness and empower general public and children through a series of national educational activities and innovative communication tools, while facilitating the integration of their views in the platforms of dialogue
Project Results:
Since MARLISCO is a public engagement and awareness raising project and not a scientific one, the content of this paragraph has been merged with the “impact” section content related.
Potential Impact:
MARLISCO has contributed to set a clear picture regarding Marine litter in each of the European Regional Seas as well as to towards a better understanding of the science-society nexus and provided material to translate research-based. The project included a review on distribution, quantities and types, sources, and impacts of marine litter; a summary of current methods of monitoring and assessment for ML; a review of existing policies that may be applied to mitigate the impact of ML. Results from WP1 were made available in the form of three reports summarising the outcomes.
MARLISCO produced 3 reports.
1 ‘Understanding of the distribution quantities and types of marine litter’
This activity and report aimed to review the current state of information and understanding in the distribution, quantities and types of marine litter in European Seas. It combines a traditional review of published literature with a survey amongst national partners of monitoring or survey and assessment activities in EU Member States. The literature review provides representative examples of the effects of litter on the marine and coastal environment, illustrating regional differences. It also considers potential negative ecological and socio-economic impacts of marine litter. In addition a summary of national surveys from official monitoring, NGOs or local authorities and R&D activities by MSFD regions was included in this report. It also shows the type of environmental compartments included in such surveys indicating the point of contact or relevant link to find further details. The report outlines limitations and gaps in the current state of knowledge and highlights some popular misconceptions relating to marine litter.
Kershaw PJ, Hartley B, Garnacho E, RC Thompson 2013. Review of the current state of understanding of the distribution, quantities and types of marine litter. Deliverable D1.1 report. MARLISCO project. (EC FP7 Coordinated and support action, SIS-MML-289042), 2013, 42.
2 ‘Methods to Monitor and Assess Marine Litter’
The report provides an overview and summary of possible approaches, internationally agreed monitoring methods and protocols. The guidance is also intended to support litter monitoring by the general public or other non-research trained persons and includes links to relevant sources of information.
Maes T, Garnacho E. 2013. Summary of current methods of monitoring and assessment for marine litter. Deliverable D1.2 report. MARLISCO project. MARine Litter in Europe Seas: Social AwarenesS and COResponsibility. (EC FP7 Coordinated and support action, SIS-MML-289042).
3‘Policies that may be applied to mitigate the impact of marine litter’
Existing policies that directly or indirectly may be applied to mitigate the impact of marine litter are reviewed to identify where policy gaps might. The report also examines which actions and policies specifically designed to deal with marine litter reduction may be associated with legally-binding or ‘hard’ mechanisms (implemented under international, regional, EU or national legislation) or non legally- binding ‘soft’ mechanisms, under a range of formal or informal agreements.
Kershaw PJ, Alcaro L, Garnacho E, Doyle T, Maes T, Painting S. 2013. Review of existing policies that may be applied to mitigate the impact of marine litter. Deliverable report D1.3. MARLISCO project. MARine Litter in Europe Seas: Social AwarenesS and CO-Responsibility. (EC FP7 Coordinated and support action, SIS-MML-289042).
Processes and solutions – moving towards better practice
MARLISCO has identified 72 best practices to reduce marine litter. The best practices have been evaluated through a novel approach: the practices served as a tool to enhance the active participation and build capacity in key actors through the implementation of the innovative, dedicatedly-developed decision support tool, DeCyDe-4-Marlisco. The key ‘preference’ attributes of successful marine litter management practices have been identified during the analysis and provided a snapshot of the key characteristics of the recorded best practices as a means of helping the reader, and particularly decision makers, recognise what would make their marine litter management efforts more successful and more effective in minimising the amount of marine litter in European Seas. A google map with pins on the practices has been developed indicating info on all these practices in order to make access more easy. The paper under the title “A novel best practices approach: The MARLISCO case”, by Xenia I. Loizidou, Michael I. Loizides, Demetra L. Orthodoxou, has been published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, vol.88 issues 1-2, 15 November 2014, p.118-128. Until June 2014 the paper had 280 downloads (as reported by ELSEVIER). Already, more than 5 cases of MARLSICO Best Practices have been reported to be implemented in other countries, citing MARLISCO Best Practice report and analysis.
The Marine Litter Data Base: Data have a very important role to play in addressing the issue of marine litter, since they allow to understand which are the main types of litter found in specific beaches/ countries/ locations and how these may vary according to the season or other factors. This information allows us to identify the main sources of marine litter and thus to implement better and more targeted solutions to address litter from these sources. The “MARLISCO Marine Litter Database”, is an additional means of further disseminating project products and activities. It is an interactive database, developed to collate all the litter data that partners have captured during the project as a result of the clean-up activities initiated to raise awareness about the marine litter issue. The database has been developed with an interactive map interface that allows the user to pinpoint the clean-up locations. The database also allows users to interrogate the data to get information on specific types of waste or specific locations. It is envisaged that this marine litter database will continue to be populated with data even after the end of the project and will thus become a very sustainable project deliverable. Co-operation with Ocean Conservancy has already been promoted.
MARLISCO has developed a user-friendly “what-to-do: problem-processes-solution” Guide for stakeholders, decision-makers and key actors on tips and means to manage and reduce marine litter. Using the clusters identified during the analysis of the recorded best practices as the backbone, the guide outlines the main actions that different stakeholder groups and key actors can take, while at the same time presenting practical examples that support the implementation efforts, help transfer knowledge, experience and methods from elsewhere, and present networking and cooperation opportunities. The guide has been graphically designed by a professional, to make it as attractive and user friendly as possible, and thus promote its uptake. An ISBN number was procured and a QR Code was developed and inserted into the Guide. The QR code takes users to the MARLISCO website where the Guide is uploaded.
The Guide is available into the following eight languages: Arabic (by MIO-ECSDE), Bulgarian (UBBSLA), Hebrew (by Zalul, Israeli environmental organisation external to the partnership), German (by EUCC-D), Greek (by ISOTECH), Italian (by Provincia di Teramo), Portuguese (by FCT-UNL) and Turkish (by TUDAV).. This gives the project important added value and significantly increases the outreach and sustainability of MARLISCO, since the MARLSICO “what-to-do: problem-processes-solution” Guide, will be used in so many languages and in countries outside the MARLSISCO partnership. This also creates advanced networking potentials, for common actions on combating marine litter.
Two ‘big book’ versions of the Guide (A2 size on PVC) have also been printed, one in English and one in Greek, and have been incorporated into the awareness-raising activities in Cyprus, by becoming an additional element of the Exhibition.
MARLISCO project has assessed society’s perceptions about marine litter and evaluated the impact of a number of educational and outreach activities with a range of stakeholder groups across Europe. Gauging people’s baseline perceptions and assessing the effectiveness of communication and engagement attempts is critical if we are to develop better strategies to improve understanding about the problem and solutions surrounding marine litter and influence behavioural change. To achieve this, MARLISCO developed a range of social surveys applicable to a variety of participants, including children, the general public and educators, and prepared several publically available reports documenting the methods and key findings.
A) SURVEYING EUROPEAN STAKEHOLDER PERCEPTIONS
MARLISCO conducted an extensive European-wide survey on awareness and perceptions about marine litter. More specifically, the survey sought to examine individuals’ understanding about the quantity, location, causes and consequences of marine litter, perceived risk and responsibility, and intentions to engage in solutions. The survey was launched in 16 coastal countries targeting key sectors, including the manufacturing industry, retailers, coastal and marine industry, waste management, government and policy makers, environmental organizations, the media, the education sector and the general public. A total of 3748 respondents completed the survey, and results enabled a better understanding of the barriers and opportunities in understanding this issue and engaging in effective solutions. Detailed results are available in the project report “Baseline Evaluation of Stakeholder perceptions and attitudes towards issues surrounding marine litter”.
A snapshot of the survey results shows that 87% of respondents agreed that “marine litter is an important problem”; 88% of respondents disagreed that “marine litter is only a problem for coastal communities”; 23% of respondents agreed that “marine litter is a future environmental threat rather than a present one”. In other words, people are concerned about marine litter overall and acknowledge that it is a problem for everyone, but are somewhat inclined to see it as a future threat. Further analysis of the survey results reveals that people’s knowledge can often lag behind the state of scientific data, even despite much media coverage of the issue. For example survey respondents correctly identified that the majority of items of marine litter are plastic, but still greatly underestimated the actual percentage of marine litter that was plastic – and this was true across a number of stakeholder groups.
B) EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF EDUCATION AND OUTREACH
A fundamental component of the MARLISCO project was the evaluation of the educational and engagement activities that were conducted between 2012 and 2015 with a number of stakeholder groups. Throughout the evaluation process, MARLISCO applied principles and methods from the social sciences in the design and implementation of social surveys to measure the impact of participation in the national fora, video competition, public exhibitions and an E-learning course to accompany pedagogical resources for educators.
The evaluations helped assess whether and how each activity changed people’s understanding, attitudes and behaviour. The evaluations demonstrates the potential for engaging different populations (the general public, children, educators and key stakeholders) in order to raise awareness about marine litter, increase understanding and encourage commitment to solutions. Detailed results from each survey evaluation are presented in the project’s evaluation report “Evaluation of specific educational and outreach activities related to marine litter”. It is crucial that educational activities are evaluated in order to gauge their success and provide an evidence base for future design and practice.
Impact of the National Fora. The national fora were evaluated with a short survey that participants completed before and then again after they attended the event. It was designed to assess participants’ level of concern, feelings of efficacy, responsibility and motivation, perceptions about solutions and their personal intentions to engage in actions to reduce the potential causes of marine litter. Results revealed that after participating in the fora, individuals felt significantly more responsible, more able to help, and that their actions would be more effective compared to before the fora. Participants’ intentions to engage in several solutions to reduce marine litter also increased significantly. The National Fora are a good example of an activity that can engage multiple sectors and increase sense of personal responsibility, efficacy and support for solutions.
Impact of the Video Contest. A similar ‘before-after’ method was implemented to determine the impact that the video contest had on youngsters’ understanding of the causes and consequences of marine litter and their level of action. Results indicate that after participating in the video contest, students’ concern about the problem, their understanding of the various causes and negative impacts, and their practical actions to reduce marine litter significantly increased. These results are largely consistent with a pilot survey conducted with UK children, results of which are published under the title “Marine litter education boosts children’s understanding and self-reported actions”, by Bonny L. Hartley, Richard C. Thompson, and Sabine Pahl (2015) in Marine Pollution Bulletin, vol. 90, p. 209-217 (2015)”. Since initial ‘in press’ online publication in November 2014 (and up to July 2015), this article has been viewed or downloaded 656 times (according to Elsevier statistics).
The MARLISCO video contest is a good example of an educational activity that can foster a sense of citizenship and ownership in the younger generation and give them an active voice in such a societal problem. In addition, the videos themselves served as tools that have been widely used to inform and trigger awareness in a wider audience - indeed in the evaluation survey, this was one of the key suggestions that children made as to what should be done next.
Impact of E-Learning Course for Educators. A third ‘before-after’ survey was developed to evaluate whether MARLISCO’s e-learning course and educational pack increased educators’ understanding of the issue and their level of confidence, motivation and intention to integrate the topic into their formal or non-formal teaching practice. Results indicate that the e-course had a positive impact on educators’ confidence in their skills and abilities to teach about marine litter. After completing the course, educators also indicated that they intended to increase the amount of marine litter education they provide, develop more lessons and activities about the topic, and encourage other educators in their network to integrate marine litter education and the MARLISCO EduPack into their teaching. This is particularly encouraging because this will maximise the potential for the training and resources to be distributed more widely and influence education practice.
The e-course represents an excellent tool to build the capacities of educators in applying the educational pack and enable them to integrate marine litter into their teaching. Starting from the contents of the educational pack as basic teaching material the course treats learners as experts that bring in their own ideas to share with others and results in jointly generated outcomes for which the learners feel a high level of ownership. The e-course provides resources, techniques and ideas to facilitate teaching whilst increasing the confidence level of the trainees.
Visitor perceptions at National Exhibition. Finally, the survey developed for the public exhibitions provided a snapshot of what visitors recalled as the most memorable aspect of the exhibits, and recorded their level of concern about marine litter and the number of action pledges they were prepared to make. Results indicate that the majority of visitors to the exhibition reported being extremely concerned about the issue. Visitors also made many pledges to take actions to reduce marine litter and be part of the solution – of the 1842 visitors surveyed at the exhibition between 2013 and 2015, 88% pledged to avoid using plastic bags in the supermarket, 74% pledged to buy items with less packaging, and 52% pledge to encourage family and friends to make similar changes that will benefit the environment. These findings indicate what the European general public will pledge to do to reduce marine litter when visiting and learning about the issue.
The findings from the large scale social surveys and evaluations Plymouth University has conducted within the MARLISCO project have contributed to informing recommendations for effective communication and engagement with stakeholders about marine litter, and support future efforts to influence attitude and behavioural change. Insights from this work have been summarised in the MARLISCO brochure prepared by Plymouth University, “Hartley, B. L., Holland, M., Pahl, S., & Thompson, R. C. (2015). How to Communicate with Stakeholders about Marine Litter – A Short Guide to Influencing Behavioural Change. UK: Plymouth University Press”. The guide also includes partner feedback reflecting on the stakeholder engagement process regarding the successes and challenges experienced during communication and interaction with different stakeholders. It is hoped that this guide will be a useful resource for academic and applied audiences across the marine, environmental and social sciences, as well as for industry, Non-Governmental Organisations, and government organisations. The guide design is currenlty being enhanced, an ISBN number has been obtained, and 150 copies will be printed for distribution.
Empowering Society through Informed Debate
MARLISCO has organised and run a series of 12 national marine litter fora across Europe between April 2014 and April 2015. The Fora were to raise awareness of the marine litter issue and find potential long term solutions. This activity was undertaken through engagement of stakeholders with an interest in, or responsibility for, some aspect of reducing the quantity of litter entering the oceans across Europe and by gathering stakeholder’s opinions on how to address marine litter in their country.
A common forum format to support implementation of the national events, guided through the planning stages, stakeholder engagement and the actual event was developed, based on participatory methodology promoting large-scale public involvement. The format was designed to be flexible, allowing individual MARLISCO partners to modify aspects in reaction to relevant on-going, current events in their countries e.g. in support of and to compliment national implementation of MSFD processes, or to take advantage of national, cultural characteristics that may be beneficial to the success of the event and to include lessons learned from MARLISCO partners that already conducted a forum.
All national fora used the MARLISCO animation ‘Impacts and Sources of Marine Litter’, which was developed specifically for the MARLISCO marine litter fora with artist Jane Lee and allowed transfer of latest scientific knowledge in an accessible way and focused discussion on current scientific, technological and societal positions with respect to marine litter. The MARLISCO animation is available online via YouTube since April 2014 with over 11,700 views to date (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=017bBeXhYz4).
Twelve European countries implemented a national forum on marine litter. Across Europe the events engaged about 1540 stakeholders from multiple sectors with 644 live audience members attending and reaching about a further 896 online participants though the use of interactive live webcasts. Forum participants across Europe represented a wide range of sectors (e.g. Research/Education, NGO, Government, Maritime Activities, Local Authorities, Media/Communication, Tourism/Recreation, Waste Management, Plastics Industry, Retail, Marketing), which provided an opportunity to utilise sector specific know-how during the event and allowed for mutual learning between forum stakeholders.
Across all twelve events the majority of submitted actions, suggestions and ideas relate to recognised concepts and approaches that address issues of waste and litter in general such as increasing Education/Awareness (29.01%), Appropriate Disposal of Waste (13.83%) and the Reduce (19.19%), Reuse (9.37%), Recycle (9.82%), Recover (3.57%) and Redesign (6.69%) concepts. These links indicate that the overall approaches and concepts are not only well known but suggest that more and definite measures and actions targeting marine litter are required to utilise these established approaches and concepts to effectively address marine litter across Europe.
Participants' perceptions pre- and post-events were assessed through quantitative evaluation by the MARLISCO team in Plymouth University under WP2. Results indicated that the events were viewed as a positive experience and there were some statistically significant differences between participants' pre- and post-fora perceptions and intentions concerning issues of marine litter (Hartley et al., 2015).
Views from European Youngsters
The European Video competition that MARLISCO launched in 2013 represented a specific activity to engage youngsters and trigger awareness by actively encouraging them to get in touch with the issue with a critical and creative perspective. In total, 379 videos were submitted, from the 14 participating coastal countries, reflective the direct involvement of 2123 youngsters.
The project foresaw mechanisms to exploit some of the best videos as outreach awareness tools, as they represent a message from the new generation on the issue of marine litter. This included a “public vote” element in the selection of the winners in every country, by placing the TOP national videos on social networks such as Facebook and on YouTube. Some of the videos had wide outreach, reaching 1.000 “views” within the first week.
An attractive “Teaser” showcasing all the 14 national winning videos was produced and throughout 2014 and 2015 actively disseminated, together with the individual videos, in several national and European events and channels, reaching a wide and diversified audience. For example, the winning videos were screened in loop during the European Green Week (3-5 June 2014) that counted with 2.000 participants and the “Teaser” was premiered during the plenary session of the 7th European Maritime Day Ceremony (EMDC, 19th May 2014)[1]in Bremen, Germany, with over 1300 participants. The teams behind each of the 14 winning national videos were invited to take part in the EMDC event and a 2-day joint, intercultural and facilitated programme in the city of Bremen, organised by MARLISCO.
In terms of impacts, based on the surveys to participating youngsters before and after their involvement in the making of the videos, their engagement in the Video Contest resulted in an increase in the youngsters’ concern about the problem, their understanding of the various causes and negative impacts, and their practical actions to reduce marine litter. Furthermore, the 80 youngsters that took part in the EMDC-Bremen programme had a very interesting and rewarding experience, not only because they received public recognition during such a high-level event but also for the socio-cultural opportunity to meet and interact with other European young people.
Close to the conclusion of the project (May 2015) the 14 winning videos had received a total of approximately 33.500 views on Youtube, had been screened at 6 European events and over 30 national ones, including most of the MARLISCO National Fora and at some of the venues of MARLISCO exhibition. The Video Contest and its products impacted not only the youngsters directly involved but also their supervising teachers, probably their families, the ambassadors and Jury members setup in each country, and all the thousands of people that watched or will be watching them in the future.
[1] Video recording of the MARLISCO session at the 7th EMDC:http://ec.europa.eu/maritimeaffairs/maritimeday/sites/mare-emd/files/event-downloads/2014-marlisco-contest.mp4
Education, Outreach and Synthesis
As with many complex problems of today, effective solutions to the thorny issue of Marine Litter require coordinated actions at many levels (International, European, National, Local) by many actors ranging from the industry; the water users; the waste management sector; the municipalities; policy makers, the scientific community; NGOs and the media up to the general public and particularly young people.
In this context MARLISCO aimed at constructively connecting science to society by ‘translating’ current state-of-the-art marine litter knowledge into relevant awareness raising and educational tools, that can be used to motivate people and trigger sustainable actions in the partner countries.
The compilation of a multilingual Educational Pack targeting primarily learners aged 10-15 years has been implemented. The Pack entitled ‘Know, Feel, Act to Stop Marine Litter’ has been compiled by using a bottom-up participatory approach. The final 120-page pack contains 17 teaching and learning activities grouped in four sections that address the characteristics, the sources, the impacts, as well as the possible ways to tackle marine litter. Each activity consists of a specific learning task or game (4 pages) and a worksheet for students (1 page). In line with the principles of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) the pack examines the environmental, social, cultural and economic aspects of the issue. The activities can be applied within a school class but also in non-formal educational settings, e.g. in outdoor programs, museums, aquariums, etc. They can be applied as single exercises, or in clusters depending on the target group needs. Given the broad geographic outreach of MARLISCO, the diverse national and regional specificities have been taken into account leading to slightly differentiated versions of the pack (different photographs, cases studies and marine litter stories), thus maximizing its appeal and relevance. The pack is now available online in 14 European languages, plus a non-European one, Arabic that has been prepared with the financial support of UNEP/MAP and will be soon available. The impact of the Packs is currently measured with the number of page views at www.marlisco.eu/education.en.htmlwhere the packs are uploaded (2,806 page views and 1,710 unique page views for the period 01/01 – 30/06/2015 with the peak towards the end, when the language versions were being progressively uploaded).
Another appealing multilingual MARLISCO output that attempts to translate science as well as policies to meaningful, yet not paternalistic learning content is an interactive e-game; a kind of a Role Playing Game (RPG) using comics, entitled “Sea Dream Team”. The game, that has been developed by MEDIA TOOLS offers its online players the opportunity to discover eight (8) characters representing sectors critical for marine litter (e.g. fisherman, marina manager, beach-user, etc.) and help them -in a fun and engaging way- to choose the most responsible behaviour to deal with specific situations, in which marine litter can be either generated or prevented. The game scenaria are simulations of real-world events or processes designed with a problem solving and/or raising awareness approach. The scenaria were developed by MEDIA TOOLS with inputs from several NPs. The game has been finalized and can be played online in 15 languages: http://www.marlisco.eu/serious-game.en.html
Another output of MARLISCO with an outreach estimated to more than one hundred thousand people has been the awareness raising exhibition. The texts have been developed with contributions from NPs, who then undertook the translation and development of their adapted national versions. The proposed highly flexible, cost-effective, easily reproduced and zero waste layout of the exhibition enabled its national reproduction to better fit the partners’ needs. Since the end of 2013 the national versions of the exhibition have been travelling and displayed at many festivals, conferences, clean-ups and other events all around Europe. Its journey is truly remarkable as demonstrated in the online map (www.marlisco.eu/exhibition-journey-map.en.html). In many countries the exhibition will keep travelling and being displayed after the end of the MARLISCO project.
Besides the inherently designed outreach activities of MARLISCO, such as the video competition for youth, the national fora, the exhibition and the educational packs, the project has put a lot of effort to disseminate the MARLISCO messages through many other national awareness raising activitiesand initiatives. These activities range from visiting schools or giving lectures at university students; running contests (e.g. art contest in Italy and a tale contest in Portugal); organising workshops and teacher-trainings, numerous beach cleanups, taking part at massive festivals, conferences and press events; celebrating important International Days (Earth Day, Oceans Day, etc); printing informative brochures, posters, postcards and other promotional material, reproducing games (e.g. Marineopoly in Romania); running social media webpages devoted to the project (linkedin, fb, etc.). It is hard to measure and quantify the accumulative impact of all these activities, however it can definitely be stated that throughout the 3-year-long timeframe of the project NPs have made best use of all given opportunities to transmit the MARLISCO messages to hundreds of thousands of people across Europe. These messages will certainly keep echoing beyond the lifespan of the project ensuring an extended and amplified after-life effect of the project activities. During the entire lifetime of the MARLISCO project, the national activities have been feeding the “news area” of its webpage.
MARLISCO has defined the format, the structure and the content of an informative brochure targeted to different sectors (from individuals to maritime, plastics industry and tourism sectors). This brochure, entitled ‘Stopping marine litter together! Each and every one of us can contribute in keeping our coasts and seas litter free!’, provides essential information on the marine litter issue (sources, composition and impacts) and suggestions on how one can contribute to tackling this growing pressure. The aim of the brochure is not only to instil a sense of co-responsibility within the various stakeholder communities as co-contributors to the marine litter problem but also to foster a sense of empowerment and take up individual and/or collective actions. The brochure is now available online in English, a Greek version is almost finalised, while several partners have expressed their intentions to translate it in other European languages. The English hardcopies as well as all other national versions of this brochure are going to be promoted in conferences, festivals, etc. even after MARLISCO ends. The brochure is available here:www.marlisco.eu/tl_files/marlisco/Downloadables/WP%206/Annex1_MARLISCO_brochure.pdf
To complement the Educational Pack, MARLISCO developed and run asynchronous e-learning course, on how to practically apply the Pack with learners. The e-course replaced the originally foreseen face-to-face workshops in order to accommodate the increased demand for participation from many countries. Through the three rounds of the e-course that took place within MARLISCO duration, more than 320 participants from more than 28 countries have taken part. The course, which was entirely tailor-made to needs of the MARLISCO audience, is equivalent to 1.5-2 days face-to-face training workshop which is “flipped” to e-content and spread over a two-week period. The teachers, surfers, divers, activists, trainers, NGO officers, museum staff and university students that took part in it formed a dynamic and highly interactive mix of people with a genuine a deep care for the seas and coasts. The latter could possibly explain their commitment in the e-course content and the high completion rates (~50%), that is more than three times the average completion rate in Massive Open Online Courses -MOOCs (~15%). In total, through the e-course, hundreds of people have been intensively trained on the educational pack and are now able to integrate it in their professions. Moreover, as these people have already created informal communication networks (mail lists and f/b), the messages of the Pack and MARLISO, keep being widely disseminated even after the e-course is over. The high completion rates of the e-course certainly motivate MIO-ECSDE to repeat it even in the post-MARLISCO era. Quantitative and Qualitative results from the e-course can be found here: www.marlisco.eu/e-learning-course.en.html
Last but not least, the project has closely following up on all its developments within the different cluster of activities and has been also exploring options so as to ensure that the project synthesis will capture and appropriately reflect the lessons learned and the experiences gained by the project’s innovative approaches to connect science to society, using the emerging threat of marine litter as a vehicle. The project has elaborated and finalised a 32-page document that showcases the MARLISCO experiences and contributes to an improved understanding of the science-society nexus, while setting a precedent for effective use of knowledge towards sustainable and responsible individual and collective actions.
Webportal and dissemination platform of Marine Litter in European Seas
MARLISCO has created and developed a publicly accessible web portal and dissemination platform: www.marlisco.eu
The portal consolidates the outputs of the project from different sources, in different forms and formats and presents them through a single access point. The main intention of the portal is to provide transparent and comprehensive information on the topic of Marine Litter (sources, trends, challenges), including a wide set of links related to external sources, and to introduce potential solutions and best practices regarding marine litter pollution. Furthermore, the most important content elements and outputs of the project are collected on the website to make them visible and available for the general public. The portal connects people of the European Seas and beyond and invite its users to participate and actively contribute, bringing in own experiences and perspectives and enable mutual learning.
The homepage of MARLISCO contains a header and footer, matching the design of the project logo and serving as a frame for the presented information. The footer contains contact details of the project coordinator and shortcuts of web 2.0 applications to enable a direct and quick communication opportunity for visitors, who are interested to get in contact with the project partners. The internal area Basecamp is also linked in the footer. Pictures provided by the MARLISCO partners and the EUCC-D photo database were implemented on the homepage to make the portal appealing to its users and to visualise the problem of marine litter. The homepage gives an overview of all available content (menu), which was built up and adapted during the project time as well as a news section showing an update on current activities and on upcoming events (which is supported by an additional event calendar) from/in all countries. To highlight the special and main outputs of different work packages of the MARLISCO project, teaser boxes with short information and comprehensive graphics were also implemented on the homepage containing short cuts linking the user directly to the specific page. By choosing the navigation menu with main- and subpages, the user gets access to more detailed project information. This includes general material about the project set up, goals, approaches, partners and deliverables. Furthermore, these pages contain the main information about different work tasks of MARLISCO. Next to a general description in English, country specific information in national languages are also provided and displayed. Main products, which are displayed on the website, include for example the national fora, exhibition and video contests, the educational packs, best practices, the serious game and the final multimedia tool (web-documentary). Additional activities such as information about the e-learning courses, a marine litter database and an exhibition journey map were also uploaded.
In general, the MARLISCO website had approximately 100.000 unique page views since the start of the website. The top 3 pages visited were the video contest pages, the general information about the project pages and the education pages. The top 3 countries being active in MARLISCO were Italy, Portugal, and the UK. Acquisition: the top channels, through which the MARLISCO website was accessed were “organic search” (google search engine) ~50 %; “direct access” ~25 % and other referrals via internet sites and social media ~25 %. Besides using this specific website for dissemination, the MARLISCO project also maintained social media channels as Facebook and Twitter. The Facebook page was regularly updated with activities, events and outcomes and has more than 1.500 likes. It was also used as a platform for communication and connection with public users, to receive feedback and to answer questions and comments. Twitter was also used to announce big events and news and has 219 followers. Besides the main MARLISCO Facebook account some countries (UK, Denmark, Cyprus, France, Italy, Portugal Turkey Romania, Bulgaria, and Ireland) additionally had national Facebook accounts, increasing the online network community and ranging between 150 and 1300 likes. Social media channels as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and produced videos were used to additionally broaden the dissemination of information of MARLISCO and increasing its popularity and its network. Social media channels and the website were used for dissemination of the project content, however, all online platforms that were used within the project including projects income in turn were disseminated in press, publications and during all different activities and events that were conducted within the 3-years project time by each partner and each country and will be beyond the project’s duration time.
The MARLISCO website primarily highlights the most important content elements and outputs of the project from national events and activities, which were conducted during the duration of the project. The portal was designed, developed and maintained during the 3-years, leaving a complete pile of detailed information about the complex topic of marine litter. This gives the public the chance to understand what MARLISCO was all about (including the people who may not be familiar with the topic) and the opportunity to get the information they need as well as for the partners being able to share their content with each other and the user. Another advantage of the website is that it remains for at least 2 years, hosted by EUCC-D giving all countries the prospect to use the material further beyond the end of the project. The content can be further used to build up other platforms on marine litter, which is for example planned by EUCC-D in the near future. The MARLISCO project may be finished, the problem of marine litter still exists, which means that MARLISCO can be used as a solid basis for continuing working on the complex challenge of marine litter across Europe and across the world beyond the project time. The established contacts between the partners of different countries remain through the website and may provide the opportunity to further cooperate with each other in the future. Building up a publicly accessible website, summarising the whole project through one single access point is certainly an effective way of displaying activities, events and outcomes as well as disseminating the clear message of the project. It transports a variety of impacts of other fundamental MARLISCO work packages and outputs, it provides some guidance to users in a universe of fragmented and dispersed information, and it creates a bond between the partners and closely connects the project with the public.
List of Websites:
www.marlisco.eu
