The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) has featured the PLASTIC BUSTERS MPAs project—led by Prof. Maria Cristina Fossi from the University of Siena—as a strategic best-practice initiative for a waste-free EU future.

Funded under the Interreg Euro-MED Programme, the project brought together the University of Siena and 14 partner organizations across eight Mediterranean countries, including research institutes, Marine Protected Area (MPA) authorities, and environmental agencies. Together, the partnership developed harmonized monitoring protocols to assess marine litter and its impacts on biodiversity across the Mediterranean Sea.

Instead of relying on fragmented data collection methods, the initiative established unified monitoring procedures for beach litter, floating plastics, seafloor debris, microplastics, and their effects on key marine species such as sea turtles, cetaceans, and seabirds. Tested across numerous Mediterranean MPAs, these protocols generated the first regionally comparable scientific baseline, enabling managers and public authorities to pinpoint pollution hotspots, track long-term trends, and measure the effectiveness of prevention policies.

A major milestone of the project was the creation of a shared governance framework, operational guidelines, and decision-support tools. By equipping MPAs with compatible methodologies and standardized indicators, PLASTIC BUSTERS MPAs fosters a coordinated cross-border response, facilitating a more consistent implementation of EU marine environment and biodiversity legislation across the region.