The Black Sea React! Project aims to contribute to regional dialogue on mitigating and effectively tackling marine pollution and marine litter, while at the same time seeking innovative solutions to salient problems. The target group of the Project includes municipalities from the Black Sea littoral countries, their respective fishing communities, primary school students and young people from all the above countries.

Description of activities

  • pilot innovative and practical solutions in order to address marine litter
  • small-scale collection of old fishing nets and related marine litter in the municipality of Sariyer (Istanbul, Turkey);
  • conversion of collected nets and litter into useful items for the daily life (GAMA Recycle A.Ş.);
  • raising awareness about the issue of marine litter and specifically the recycling of plastic litter among the younger generations
  • creation of an educational school kit in the national languages of the participating countries;
  • organisation of a regional Essay Competition on marine litter prevention targeting high-school students;
  • highlighting the results of the Project and building a coalition of municipalities along the Black Sea coastline, interested to tackle marine litter locally
  • creation of a short video for awareness raising purposes in the Black Sea littoral countries;
  • organisation of a regional conference to highlight its results and encourage further pollution-preventing action in the Black Sea, based on the experience gained.

Core Partners

  • BSEC Permanent International Secretariat (BSEC PERMIS)
  • International Centre for Black Sea Studies (ICBSS)
  • Municipality of Sariyer
  • GAMA Recycle A.S.

Associated Partner

USA Consulate in Istanbul

Project duration

January 2021 – December 2022

Presentation: 

Presented at the Final Conference: "Strengthening the project implementation capacity, dialogue and cooperation in the Black Sea Region" (23 November 2022, Athens)

CLICK HERE

The Project is co-funded by the European Commission under Grant Contract ENI/2020/421-957.