Since 1999, waste management is a priority for Mare Nostrum NGO, which has made the first beach monitoring according to the European models. Since then, year after year, the organization maintains the tradition to monitor beach sectors of the Romanian coast, making reports on marine litter situation.
We have dedicated many projects to this topic because one of the key objectives of Mare Nostrum is the rational use of resources. As a society, we consider ourselves responsible for the waste we produce. Many of these could be recycled to reduce the consumption of raw materials.
Our team of specialists and volunteers constantly monitors the presence of waste in different contexts: beach, city, water, in order to reach our ambitious goal: to reduce them in the next 4 years.
Every year, we are sounding the alarm over the existing quantities of marine litter on Romanian beaches and try to convince the responsible authorities to take action to stop this phenomenon. We consider the education of tourists and local community very important, and our campaigns have media support to reach the main public.
We advocate for less plastic and fewer cigarette butts both in city and on the Romanian beaches, where their decomposition becomes toxic. We propose alternatives every day and are open to all innovative solutions.
We have introduced the first selective collection programs in the cities of Navodari, Medgidia and Mangalia, being convinced that the best solution is to recycle waste at the source of their production and that people must be aware that is their duty to care about the fate of their waste.