More Than 5 Tons of Waste Collected with Sea Skimmers

Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change has deployed sea sweeper vessels in the Fethiye and Marmaris districts of Muğla since 15 July as part of the '' Zero Waste Blue '' initiative. These two vessels operate for 8 hours daily along the coastlines, collecting waste both from their regular patrols and from areas they visit in response to reports, then delivering the collected waste to solid waste facilities. To prevent pollution in the seas, these vessels, called sea sweepers, which are tasked with collecting waste from yachts and boats sailing in the sea, have collected more than 5 tons of waste since they began operations. The waste collected—PET bottles, food waste, packaging, glass bottles, drums, clothing and wooden pieces—are placed in garbage containers or recycling bins located on the shore, ensuring proper disposal and recycling. Operating for 8 hours daily, the sea sweepers in Marmaris district exit the gulf and travel to İçmeler and Turunç coastlines, where they use a device at the front of the vessel to first vacuum waste thrown from shore or boats, then collect it into crates. The sea sweepers will continue sea and coastal cleaning operations for 90 days until 12 October.

Environmentalists love the sea sweepers

Murat Ersan, Chairman of Marmaris Environmental Protection Association KOD48, made the following comments regarding this cleanup activity at sea:

'We environmentalists are sometimes insatiable—two vessels are not enough, we would of course like to see more in different bays. These vessels brought by our Ministry made us very happy in a moral sense. We are very grateful to our Ministry for this work being done to clean our seas. It is wonderful that Marmaris' seas are being cleaned and these vessels are cleaning these coastlines. We are also awaiting sea-floor cleaning operations in the context of muddy sediments flowing down from the mountains after wildfires, and we know that intensive work is being carried out on this matter.'