Beach litter - Beaches locations & litter list used - EU-MSFD monitoring 2001/2023 v2025

This visualization product displays beaches locations where the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) monitoring protocol has been applied to collate data on macrolitter (> 2.5 cm).
Reference lists associated with these protocols have been indicated with different colors in the map.

EMODnet Chemistry included the collection of marine litter in its 3rd phase. Since the beginning of 2018, data of beach litter have been gathered and processed in the EMODnet Chemistry Marine Litter Database (MLDB).
The harmonization of all the data has been the most challenging task considering the heterogeneity of the data sources, sampling protocols and reference lists used on a European scale.

Preliminary processings were necessary to harmonize all the data:
- Exclusion of OSPAR 1000 protocol: in order to follow the approach of OSPAR that it is not including these data anymore in the monitoring;
- Selection of MSFD surveys only (exclusion of other monitoring, cleaning and research operations);
- Exclusion of beaches without coordinates;
- Some categories & some litter types like organic litter, small fragments (paraffin and wax; items > 2.5cm) and pollutants have been removed. This list was created using EU Marine Beach Litter Baselines, the European Threshold Value for Macro Litter on Coastlines and the Joint list of litter categories for marine macro-litter monitoring from JRC (these three documents are attached to this metadata).

More information is available in the attached documents.

Warning: the absence of data on the map does not necessarily mean that they do not exist, but that no information has been entered in the Marine Litter Database for this area.