Croatia Urged to Tackle Plastic Pollution in Adriatic

A leading ecologist says that while Croatia's Adriatic Sea is still relatively clean, the growing amount of plastic waste in the waters poses a real threat to fish, wildlife and human health.

Fish swim near a plastic bag along a coral reef. Photo: EPA / Mike Nelson

Croatian environmentalists are calling for a more pro-active approach to pollution in the Adriatic resulting from thrown-away plastic items, amid growing fears about their impact on fish, wildlife and human health.

“Our sea is still clean, compared to other seas, and the fish caught in Croatia is still safe to eat. The situation is still reversible and solvable. However, to keep it that way, we should finally begin to act,” Mosor Prvan, an expert on sea protection from WWF Adria, the World Wide Fund for Nature, told BIRN.

A new report from the WWF says Europe – the EU-28 plus Norway and Switzerland – is the world’s second largest plastic producer after China. Referring to data from 2016, it states that 60 million tonnes of plastic produced in Europe that year generated no less than 27 million tonnes of waste.

Croatia itself used around 54,744 tonnes of plastic packaging in 2016, less than half of which was reused or recycled.

Small plastic and polystyrene pieces are among the most common items found in Croatia’s seas followed by cotton buds, plastic caps and lids from drink bottles and other items.

Over 90 per cent of this waste comes from the mainland, much of it from tourists.

Over 200 million tourists visit the Mediterranean each year, generating a 40 per cent increase in marine litter during summer. In recent years, pictures of plastic waste piles on Croatian beaches have been increasingly common.

This is not a specifically Croatian problem. As BIRN has reported, plastic waste can be seen floating down from Albania carried by the winter sea current, ending up on Croatian beaches.

The root cause of this growing plastic pollution lies in the gaps in plastic waste management in Croatia and neighbouring Italy, Montenegro and Albania, stressed Prvan, who is currently visiting Lastovo, “such a beautiful island – with an unsuitable landfill”.

“Plastic waste is not yesterday’s problem. It’s a long lasting, as well as a multi-layered problem,” Prvan warned, explaining that plastics never fully decompose.

When BIRN asked the Croatian Tourist Board whether this plastic pollution might affect the country’s booming tourist industry, it answered that it felt confident that the situation was under control.

“Croatia has a reputation of a tourist destination with a preserved and diverse nature, and we are sure that we will maintain this position in the future,” it said.

Plastics injure and often kill sea animals, among them many endangered species such as sea turtles and the Mediterranean monk seal. Apart from macroplastic waste, there is a smaller, but even more dangerous threat – microplastics.

These are a huge problem because they tie large amounts of toxins to themselves, Prvan explained. And, via fish, they can also reach the top of the food chain, the human organism.

According to WWF, record levels of pollution from microplastics in the Mediterranean Sea are now higher than those in the oceans’ so-called “garbage patches”, and pose a threat to many marine species and fish as well as to human health.

To preserve the sea and beaches from pollution, the EU is now turning its attention to the 10 single-use plastic products and fishing gear that together account for 70 per cent of all the marine litter in Europe.

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