(ANSA) - BUDVA, MAY 9 - Cleaning up beaches from plastic and waste, and creating anti-erosion barriers by reusing wood recollected on the coasts. These are the goals of the WELCOME project launched by an alliance between Italy, Albania and Montenegro to save the Adriatic coasts from garbage and erosion.

Led by the National Interuniversity Consortium for the Sciences of the Sea of Unisalento and co-financed by the EU, the initiative was presented in Kotor, Montenegro, on the sidelines of the annual forum of the Adriatic-Ionian macro-region (Eusair).

Since the beginning of the collection and analysis operations, in 2018, on the beaches of Torre Chianca, Frigole and San Cataldo 144kg of have bene collected, of which over 80% is plastic, and 777 kg of wood. This data are in line with the collection on the Albanian coast, which has achieved even worse results (240kg of waste, of which over 73% is plastic, and 670 kg of wood), and on the Montenegrin one, which appears a little less polluted (60kg of waste, over 60% plastic, and 40kg of wood). "We want to call on the institutions for a coordinated intervention in the three countries in the management of the coastal area and in the development of models of dispersion of marine junk in the Adriatic Sea", said Milica Mandić, director of the research laboratory of the Institute of marine biology University of Montenegro, project partner.

In addition to the cleaning of the coasts, the researchers and biologists involved in the project aim to restore coastal dunes and do so by gathering artists and designers to create eco-sustainable barriers to protect the area against erosion by reusing the wood collected on the beaches. (ANSA) .