Marine Litter Watch launches a new app to tackle Marine Plastic Waste

A new app has been launched by the Marine Litter Watch team from the European Environment Agency. We are proud to shout about this initiative to tackle plastic pollution especially as one of the team who created it, Constança Belchoir, will join us on eXXpedition 2014. We can’t wait to use this in a marine litter actions. Bravo Constança and her team!!

Huge amounts of plastic and other debris are increasingly found in the sea, harming marine wildlife and potentially threatening human health. However, the composition, movement and origins of rubbish ending up in our seas and on beaches are still not widely understood.

To help understand this issue, the EEA is launching Marine Litter Watch, which uses modern technology to help tackle the problem of marine litter. Organised groups and members of the public can use the app to upload data on the litter they find on their beach. This data will be used to better understand the problem, and will hopefully help support a policy response as formulated in the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive. The app is currently available for Android devices and will soon be published for iPhone and iPad.