For a Plastic-Free Mediterranean Sea (BeMed+)

Every year, over 229,000 tonnes of plastic waste are dumped into the Mediterranean Sea – the equivalent of 500 containers per day. Without significant improvements in plastic waste management, this amount is expected to double by 2040. In response to this challenge, Beyond Plastic Med (BeMed) leads the BeMed+ project to reduce plastic pollution in the Mediterranean, focusing on countries in the southern and eastern parts of the region.

BeMed+ is built around four main components:

• Strengthening the financial and technical capacities of field actors.
• Encouraging collaboration and positive competition among local stakeholders to increase impact.
• Developing integrated, multi-stakeholder initiatives in Albania and Tunisia.
• Ensuring results can be transferred by implementing governance at global, regional, and local levels.

• Empower technical and financial autonomy of actors in southern and eastern Mediterranean countries.
• Structure a network of actors to enable joint initiatives with greater impact.
• Embed the fight against plastic pollution into local development policies in the Mediterranean.

BeMed+ promotes local activities and the sharing of experiences, tools, and data, thereby sustainably strengthening local actors’ capacities. By helping micro-initiatives become economically viable, the project also contributes to the economic development of the Mediterranean basin. Finally, the pilot actions carried out in this project can inspire the implementation of best practices in other watersheds and tourist coastal areas worldwide.