14 DAY TRIAL // The European Environment Agency has recently finished work on a new mobile app that it expects will help protect beaches across the world against people who are all too willing to abandon cans, plastic bags and other types of litter that they no longer have any use for to their faith.
The app in question is dubbed Marine Litter Watch. It is the result of a collaboration between the European Environment Agency, the Marine Conservation Society, the Institute for Water of the Republic of Slovenia, the North Sea Foundation, and the PERSEUS FP7 research project.
On its website, the Agency details that the app is intended to make it possible for people to report the litter that they chance to stumble upon while enjoying a day at the beach. In doing so, it encourages communities to become actively involved in managing beaches.
As shown by several previous studies, marine litter constitutes a threat to aquatic and coastal ecosystems. What's more, it sometimes happens that it does not only endanger wildlife, but also the safety of certain human activities and even public health.
The problem is that, for the time being, specialists are still having trouble making head and tail of the composition, movement and origins of the garbage that has taken up residence either in seas or on beaches worldwide over the years.
This is because detailed information concerning these issues is rather difficult to come by, and therefore pretty much lacking.
Marine Litter Watch is expected to help solve this problem by allowing the general public and green-oriented groups to share information concerning the distribution of litter. This data can later be analyzed and used to piece together policies intended to keep beaches and water sources clean and safe.
“At present, there are insufficient data to properly assess the problem of marine litter. Citizens can play a major role in enriching the data and information needed to support marine litter management and prevention,” the European Environment Agency writes.
“By being actively engaged in data collection activities, citizens and communities may become aware of environmental issues prevailing in their local areas. This awareness is key to help support changes towards sustainable practices and behavior,” it further explains.
The Marine Litter Watch app is free of charge. Presently, it is only available for Android devices, and can be downloaded from the Google Play store. However, the Agency says that, by this year's April, it will also be made available to iPhone and iPad users in the App store.