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World Environment Day

The 2023 theme chosen by UNEP, the United Nations Environment Programme, is: #BeatPlasticPollution and aims to remind us how important everyone's actions are to combat plastic pollution.

More than 400 million tonnes of plastic is produced worldwide each year, half of which is designed for one-time use. Of these, less than 10% is recycled.
It is estimated that 19-23 million tons end up in lakes, rivers and seas each year.
Microplastics – tiny particles of plastic up to 5 mm in diameter – make their way into food, water and the air. Discarded or burned single-use plastic harms human health and biodiversity, and pollutes every ecosystem, from mountaintops to the ocean floor.

  • World Environment Day
  • 2023-06-05T00:00:00+02:00
  • 2023-06-05T23:59:59+02:00
  • The 2023 theme chosen by UNEP, the United Nations Environment Programme, is: #BeatPlasticPollution and aims to remind us how important everyone's actions are to combat plastic pollution. More than 400 million tonnes of plastic is produced worldwide each year, half of which is designed for one-time use. Of these, less than 10% is recycled. It is estimated that 19-23 million tons end up in lakes, rivers and seas each year. Microplastics – tiny particles of plastic up to 5 mm in diameter – make their way into food, water and the air. Discarded or burned single-use plastic harms human health and biodiversity, and pollutes every ecosystem, from mountaintops to the ocean floor.
  • When Jun 05, 2023 (Europe/Berlin / UTC200)
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Italy is among the first in Europe for the recycling rate of packaging waste. In 2021, 71.9% of packaging waste was recycled, exceeding the target of 65% set for 2025 by around 7 percentage points. The set targets have already been achieved for all fractions, except plastic.
To find out the data on the state of the environment, consult the ISPRA report "Environment in Italy: an overview. Environmental Data Yearbook 2022”
ISPRA is the implementing body of the PNRR MER Project (Marine Ecosystem Restoration), the largest project on the sea in the context of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. ISPRA data show that 86.5% of waste at sea is linked to fishing activities and 94% of these are abandoned nets. The MER project involves the identification and restoration of at least 15 areas where there are abandoned fishing and/or aquaculture gear, preserving the local fauna and flora.

ISPRA also participates in other projects for the protection of the sea from pollution by plastics and microplastics.

Mo.Ri.net Project "Monitoring, census, collection and start of recycling of ghost nets" was born with the intention of removing marine litter, with particular attention to ghost nets, i.e. lost or entangled nets or parts of they, previously identified and geolocated, in two pilot areas: in the Marine Protected Area of ​​the Asinara Park and in the Gulf of Asinara and the Marine Protected Area of ​​Capo Carbonara in Sardinia.

The GoFree project, which began in April 2021, had as its primary objective that of creating pots lined with prototypes of biodegradable and compostable materials to be used for fishing for striped hunchback, in order to counter the phenomenon of ghost fishing.

INDICIT project which had the objective of developing a methodology to make the indicator operational on the quantity of marine waste ingested by the Caretta caretta sea turtle and other marine animals such as fish.

STRONG SEA - Survey and TReatment ON Ghost nets SEA LIFE – The aim of the project is to protect and improve the conservation status of the priority habitat of Posidonia oceanica and of the coralligenous Reefs habitat