Large scale trends of coastline litter including plastic as a proxy for impact mitigation in EU

Policy measures against marine litter aim at reducing litter (including plastics) concentrations in the environment, in order to mitigate impact on marine ecosystems and human activities. Environmental concentrations of plastics/litter are being considered as proxies for related impact and risk.

In that context, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires that Good Environmental Status (GES) be achieved for the European marine environment, including for marine litter, as per MSFD Descriptor 10. Based on a commonly agreed methodology, through Guidance on the Monitoring of Marine Litter, EU Member States have been providing data on macro litter abundances on selected EU beaches to the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet). Following the establishment of a baseline period, 2015–2016, and further ongoing data collection, data from 253 beaches across EU were analysed and normalised by the MSFD Technical Group on Marine Litter (TG ML).

The methodology for step-trend assessment was then discussed, agreed upon and applied to the dataset from 2015 to 2021. The trends of litter abundance for total abundance and selected litter categories at different spatial aggregation levels will be presented. Despite the encouraging trends showing the positive impacts of mitigation measures through EU legislation, regional and national efforts, and efforts by the public, the abundance of litter in many European areas remains high and demands the implementation of additional effective measures. While the approach was applied to data from EU countries it can be applied in shared marine basins and also at larger spatial scope to inform on trends related to impact and risk posed my by marine litter/plastic.