North Sea litter campaign wins UN award

An initiative to reduce the pollution in the North Sea by encouraging Scottish fishermen to use their trawlers to fish litter and waste out of the water has won the coveted UN Grand Award for Public Relations.


The Save the North Sea initiative, backed by the EU, was originally started in 2003 but ran out of funding in 2004. It was started again in May this year (see related story) funded by a consortium of business, government and NGOs, and coordinated by environmental organisation KIMO.

It is targeting the damage caused by 20,000 tons of litter dumped into the waters around Scotland every year. Around 100 boats from ten Scottish harbours expect to collect around 500 tonnes of waste as well as monitor the amount of litter gathering in the waters.

The scheme characterised birds as turning into “living dustbins” with 96% of fulmars having plastic in their stomachs.

The UN award will be presented as part of the 2005 IPRA Golden World Awards at a ceremony on 3rd November in London.

David Hopkins

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