Seafloor litter along the Italian coastal zone: An integrated approach to identify sources of marine litter

A heterogeneous amount of waste of different origins is continuously generated along Italian coasts in the Mediterranean Sea. In this paper, using information regarding the quantities and the different types of marine litter based on Project AWARE's “Dive Against Debris” data, we try to identify the main sources of this waste. In particular, the methodological approach used associates the origin of marine litter sources with the dataset of geo-localised state-owned maritime concessions, which are loaded by the granting bodies (regions, municipalities, port authorities) on the State Property Information System (Sid). The sources of marine litter were evaluated using the matrix scoring technique (MST). Then, to assess the weight of each source in each station, the community-level weighted mean (CWM) was calculated. Single-use plastic accounted for the highest percentage (19.13%), followed by glass beverage bottles (10.90%), shopping bags (9.03%), aluminium beverage cans (4.91%), and ciga...