Blue Islands – Seasonal variation of waste as effect of tourism

Tourism in the Mediterranean Sea has developed into a major industry, so much so that Mediterranean economies have grown dependent on it for local employment and as an income source. The annual massive tourist wave toward the Mediterranean in the summer period places a great burden on the infrastructure of Islands including that for waste management. Local authorities face an often insurmountable challenge in coping with the resulting multifold waste generation. Although a known and recurrent phenomenon, the seasonal variation of waste generation in sea-locked island economies has yet to be properly defined and its socioeconomic and environmental effects determined. Moreover the problem has yet to be addressed, exacerbating the difficulty facing Mediterranean islands in developing cyclical economy models.

Wasteserv is carrying out frequent sand sampling in three beaches, namely Golden Bay, Gnejna Bay and Balllut ta’ Marsaxlokk as part of this project. The results will be collated with those of the other partners to be used for:

• Measuring the seasonal variation of waste in 9 Mediterranean Islands by developing a correlation index between tourism and waste;
• Creating tools to actually redress the consequences of seasonal increase in waste in order to document and verify results;
• Developing a new business model based on a direct rewarding scheme.

This project is being implemented in partnership with the following European organisations:

• Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment  - Department of Environment, Cyprus (Lead Partner)
• Rhodes Municipality, Greece
• Region of Crete – Directorate of Environment and Spatial Planning, Greece
• Municipality of Mykonos, Greece
• Network of the Insular CCI of the European Union, Greece
• Primorje and Gorski Kotar County, Croatia
• Taormina Etna Consortium, Italy
• Sardinia Region – VET Department, Italy
• EA Eco-Entreprises, France
• Autonomous University of Barcelona – Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Spain
• National Inter-University Consortium for Marine Sciences, Italy
• Association of Cities and Regions for sustainable Resource Management, Belgium
• Council of Mallorca – Environment Department, Spain

This project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and will be implemented over a period of three years.