A roadmap towards a litter-free marine environment

In Finland, like so many other places, information on marine litter was scarce and uncertain. The RoskatPois! (LitterAway!) project included an extensive mapping exercise where marine litter was collected from 14 urban, natural, and intermediate seashores around the coast of Finland. Every piece of litter larger than 2.5 cm in size found in the study areas (each measuring 100 m x 10 m) was counted and classified according to the material and intended use. The project was coordinated by the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) and run together with the Natural Resources Centre (Luke) and the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom).

A questionnaire was sent to the coastal city authorities to help assess the sources and routes of the marine litter. On this basis, in coastal towns, inadequate rainwater treatment was considered to be the main cause of marine litter. In medium-sized cities, frequent sewage flooding was identified as another significant factor. In cities with more than 100,000 people, other important contributors were the disposal of snow removed from the streets into the sea, construction and demolition sites and too few bins for cigarette butts.

Awareness raising was also part of the project. It included a Marine Litter Challenge, where citizens were invited to send in their ideas on how to cut marine litter. This proved to be a good catalyst for raising public awareness about marine litter problems, and 93 proposals were submitted.