15th Edition - International Clean up & Marine litter monitoring event

On 30 May 2026, in celebration of World Environment Day, Venice Lagoon Plastic Free and NH Hotels brought together 28 volunteers at the Secca di Sant'Alvise for a marine litter monitoring and clean-up session. In a single 100-metre stretch of shoreline, the team removed 56.76 kg of waste and catalogued 2,873 individual items. The second most common find? Polystyrene fragments, 276 of them. Polystyrene does not biodegrade. It breaks apart into microplastics, enters the food chain, and cannot be meaningfully cleaned up once fragmented. The EU's Single-Use Plastics Directive has banned expanded polystyrene food containers since 2021, but the material remains largely unregulated beyond food service. France attempted a broader packaging ban only to withdraw it in 2024. Canada scaled back its plastic packaging for exports ban in October 2025. The pattern is the same everywhere: ambition, then retreat. VLPF's position is straightforward. A complete ban on polystyrene is the only adequate response.