CAPonLITTER Kick-Off Meeting took place on 23–24 October 2019, in Portugal

Union of Bulgarian Black Sea Local Authorities (UBBSLA) team participated as a project partner at the initial Interreg Europe meeting of the CAPonLITTER project, which took place in Lisbon on October 23-24.The meeting was organized by the leading partner of FCT NOVA – NOVA School of Science and Technology, NOVA University Lisbon. At the project meeting, the Lead Partner presented the project activities and the obligations that await the project partnership with the aim of achieving the main objective of the project, improving policies and practices that can help prevent the generation of marine wastes as a result of coastal tourism and recreational activities.

 

The project activities aim at:
– Improve waste management at critical points in coastal areas through the promotion of policies that can be regulated and promote better waste management at beach facilities and services related to recreational events taking place in coastal areas.
– Improve policies for managing specific packaging items that are among the most common types of marine waste.
– Engage key stakeholders, raise awareness and promote responsible behavior by coastal authorities, users and businesses, especially related to tourism and recreation in coastal areas.
In order to achieve the project objectives, project partners will share experiences and explore how to integrate those experiences into regional and local policies and promote them through specific instruments.The partners will draw on the expertise, experience, practices and knowledge that exists within the partnership and in the territory in which they operate.Through an inter-regional process of exchange of experience and mutual education, partners will explore ways to improve their regional policies and promote the implementation of best practices with the active involvement of key stakeholders.The exchange of experiences and mutual education will be based on seven interregional workshops organized by each of the project partners.The workshops will be dedicated to specific topics related to marine waste and each partner will share their experiences, which will be complemented by thematic seminars led by invited experts.
The interregional process will result in the development of seven regional action plans that will be the main output of the project itself.The Action Plans will include activities and recommendations on the implementation of good practice examples and how they can be integrated or supported by specific policy instruments, including Structural Funds and funding lines linked to operational programs.
In all partner regions, CAPonLITTER will result in the formation of stakeholder communities that will advocate for areas without plastic waste, beaches and coastal manifestations in accordance with the waste management plan, will prevent the occurrence of marine waste, and significant improvements will be made in terms of prevention, collection and recycling according to the plan. waste in coastal areas.
The CAPonLITTER project has a duration of forty-two months (August 2019 – January 2023) and will be divided into two phases.The first phase will last thirty months and will be based on interregional education, while the second phase will last for twelve months and its focus will be on the implementation and monitoring of the action plans adopted.
The total value of the project, which is 85% funded by the Interreg Europe program, is € 1,375,834.00 and the IRENA budget is € 119,263.00.
The project involves 9 partners from 8 EU countries.
Leading partner: FCT NOVA – NOVA School of Science and Technology, NOVA University Lisbon (Portugal)
Project partners: APA – Portuguese Environment Agency (Portugal), IRENA – Istrian Regional Energy Agency (Croatia), UBBSLA – Union of Bulgarian Black Sea Local Authorities (Bulgaria), Crete Region (Greece), ZWE – Zero Waste Europe (Netherlands) ), MerTerre (France), UBA – German Federal Environment Agency (Germany), ECOAQUA – University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain)

More for the project: www.interregeurope.eu/caponlitter/