The project lead partner IRENA \u2013 Istrian Regional Energy Agency, <\/strong>and partners Association for Nature, Environment, and Sustainable Development Sunce, SINLOC SPA, LAG Eastern Venice, Municipality of Casarano, and Local Action Group LAG 5<\/strong> have joined forces to address marine litter issues along the Adriatic coast as part of the AWASTER<\/strong> project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The project is funded by the cross-border cooperation program Interreg Italy-Croatia 2021-2027. <\/strong>It will be implemented in the coastal areas of Croatia and Italy until the end of August 2026. As a kick-off of project activities, partners held a meeting on<\/strong> April 23rd and 24th in Labin<\/strong> as part of the Green and Blue Energy Transition Days of Istria County<\/strong> and agreed on the direction of activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The overall objective is to reduce waste production by promoting and advocating for the principles of circular economy<\/strong> through educational programs and courses, as well as through cross-border exchange of knowledge and experiences involving elementary and high school students and stakeholders from the economic sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 The objective of creating future citizens who are aware of their role in nature conservation, environmental conservation education, and the importance of waste reduction should be integrated into every educational system, \u2013 emphasized Andrea Poldrugovac<\/strong>, the project manager from IRENA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 We will involve schools in educational activities according to the guidelines developed through the project. Together with the youngest, we will organize environmental cleanup actions with the aim of children passing on knowledge to their parents. The idea is to establish small EcoLabs to produce innovative products from plastic waste, \u2013 Tea Kuzmi\u010di\u0107 Rosandi\u0107<\/strong> from Sunce added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The partners will carry out a series of activities to promote the early adoption of circular economy principles and sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 We will develop guidelines for decision-makers and a joint strategy and action plan, as well as a catalogue of best practices with circular economy principles for the economic sector to promote efficient resource use. The experience of the Municipality of Casarano<\/strong> and ARO\/LE9 in waste collection services will be of great benefit for regional analysis and the overall project implementation, \u2013 said Francesca Pozzar<\/strong> from SINLOC SPA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 The Local Action Group LAG 5, i.e., 11 municipalities from the islands of Kor\u010dula, Lastovo, and Mljet, as well as the Pelje\u0161ac peninsula, will actively contribute to the development of guidelines, utilizing its knowledge of the challenges related to marine litter accumulation in the southern Adriatic, \u2013 emphasized Lana Vilovi\u0107<\/strong> from LAG 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 Our role, as the development agency for the Veneto region and the leading organization of local action groups in fisheries, is to provide insights into the local situation regarding marine litter and its connection to fisheries, \u2013 said Cinzia Gozzo<\/strong> from the VeGAL agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The AWASTER project has a value of over 1.5 million euros and will last for 30 months. This project takes specific steps towards cleaner seas and coastlines at the regional level. Collaboration between regions in Croatia and Italy will be crucial for successfully addressing the challenges of marine litter in the Adriatic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Advocating the principles of the circular economy through educational programs as a solution to the problem of excessive waste in the Adriatic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":25548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1190,1250,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awaster-adopting-waste-as-resource-en","category-waste-from-the-sea","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunce-st.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunce-st.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunce-st.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunce-st.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunce-st.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25552"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sunce-st.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34785,"href":"https:\/\/sunce-st.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25552\/revisions\/34785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunce-st.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sunce-st.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunce-st.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sunce-st.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Educating the youngest is the main plan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sunce-st.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/web-28-1024x640.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sunce-st.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/web-30-1024x640.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nDecision-makers and the economic sector are essential components<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sunce-st.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/slagalica-za-JEDRO-1024x640.png\")
<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"