Plastic pollution, which reaches increasingly serious levels globally each year, also threatens the coastal and marine ecosystems of the Mediterranean. Single-use plastics constitute the majority of plastic waste, as more than 500 million tonnes of plastics are produced worldwide annually, with over half being single-use items. These products cannot be recycled and thus end up in waste collection sites, ultimately finding their way into the seas and oceans.

To address this pressing concern and encourage the development of solutions, EKAD, TÜRÇEV (Environmental Education Foundation of Türkiye) and Antalya Metropolitan Municipality launched the “Plastic-free Shores, Plastic-free Waters” initiative for the first time in summer 2023. The project continues to expand its scope each year.

Our project aims to:
– Foster awareness and understanding of plastic waste;
– Emphasise the importance of individual choices in solving the problem;
– Introduce ways to eliminate plastics, particularly single-use plastics, from our daily lives;
– Initiate and support efforts in this regard.

Numerous studies indicate that plastics make up the highest proportion of waste collected by municipalities on beaches, which are frequently visited by the public during the summer months. Therefore, we have chosen beachgoers as our primary target audience. Our activities on public Blue Flag beaches include awareness campaigns directed at both local residents and tourists, educational games and competitions for all age groups, user surveys, informative presentations and discussions, as well as clean-ups on the beach and in the sea to collect numerical data.