A new tool to protect the Mediterranean Sea from marine litter is coming. It is the Coastal Cities Network, a network of good practices already introduced in the Italian territory, which from today will be available to anyone who wants to replicate them. Keeping them together is the ENI CBC Med COMMON project, which sees Italy, Lebanon and Tunisia engaged in the fight against marine litter and in a more sustainable management of waste.

The first protagonists of the network are the municipalities of two Italian pilot areas, Maremma Toscana and Salento, which in the last year and a half have taken part in a path of mutual evaluation, with tourist and fishing operators, stimulated by the COMMON project and which will now go to share their experiences at the Mediterranean level. From plastic-free schools to quality water supply systems, from sustainable management of tourism in protected areas to slow food: there are already 15 good practices collected by the COMMON network, relating to two macro-categories: reduction of waste production / recycling and waste management during fishing activities. Seven municipalities have already joined: 4 from Tuscany (Castiglione della Pescaia, Grosseto, Follonica, Scarlino) and 3 from Puglia (Taranto, Porto Cesareo and Castro), but the number is destined to rise in the coming days.

All the good practices made available to the territories will be collected on the www.commonproject.it platform in the "Coastal Cities Network" section, which in the coming weeks will see the participation of the Lebanese and Tunisian municipalities, the two countries involved together with Italy, in the project. Being part of the network is very simple, just write to e.scocchera@legambiente.it telling the project staff about the good practice to share.

The network (and the platform) was presented by the NGO Legambiente and the CIHEAM Bari Institute (the two Italian partners of the COMMON project), in an online meeting dedicated to all municipalities and administrations interested. Almost twenty Italian municipality joined the event.