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Environmental information systems
Marine litter is a growing concern and citizens can play a major role by preventing litter from their daily activities from getting into the environment.
The problem of marine litter is related to production and our consumption patterns, and the way we dispose of and manage waste. The main problem is caused by plastic litter that accumulates in the environment for hundreds of years, slowly degrades into microplastic and causes harm across all ecosystems.
Citizens can get actively involved in the beach clean-up activities that are being organised across Europe. People can also collect the data and information needed to support authorities to better manage and prevent marine litter. The EEA has developed Marine LitterWatch (MLW) to enable data collection all over Europe. For further information, please read the Marine litter web report or contact marinelitterwatch@eea.europa.eu.