The National Agency for Waste announced today, Thursday, in a statement, the launch of an information and awareness program on the dangers of plastic pollution in cooperation with the Propium Network for the Protection of Marine Biodiversity in Algeria and the Association “Expedition Med France”.
The same source explained that this program aims to “disseminate knowledge on a large scale about the issues of pollution and better understand its source and impact.”
In this regard, the agency has developed a “rich program” that initially aims to exchange knowledge between local and international experts to standardize protocols for the identification and assessment of plastic waste at sea and on land.
The second part of this program will be devoted to aspects of awareness through a mobile pedagogical and scientific convoy on the stakes of plastic waste pollution.
“This caravan is inspired by a concept initiated by Expedition Med France, which has proven its effectiveness for more than five years of tours in many countries and has received tens of thousands of visitors,” the same source added.
The three partners seek, through this caravan, which will tour several cities, to sensitize visitors, develop their environmental awareness, and mobilize more relevant actors to find common solutions while shedding light on the problem of microplastics in the sea “because the national workshops organized in 2017 with the Directorate General of Maritime Fishing and Aquaculture were the ones that officially defined microplastics as one of the 18 pollutants in the vigilance network of the Ministry of Fisheries.”
The agency states that according to a study it conducted in 2019, the production of household and similar waste in Algeria is estimated at more than 13 million tons annually, including about two million tons of plastic.
The coastal waste characterization study, conducted in 2019/2020, revealed that nearly 87 percent of the waste found on Algerian beaches is plastic, especially single-use plastics.
