Measures to tackle coastal pollution are outlined

FIVE measures to combat the pollution of Europe's coast, including the immediate imposition of a deposit on plastic drinks bottles, were outlined by the international co ordinator of Coastwatch Europe in Dublin yesterday.

Ms Karin Dubsky was speaking at the publication of the results of the Coastwatch Europe Autumn 1995 survey of Europe's coastline.

The EU must consider the issue of waste when drafting policies in all areas where waste is produced, e.g. fisheries or agriculture, Ms Dubsky said.

There should be an integrated approach to waste management at European level. She called for a task force on controlling coastal and marine litter.

There should be a mandatory deposit on drinks containers right across Europe. The Minister for the Environment had the power to do this by making an order, Ms Dub sky said.

In Germany, where such deposits are mandatory, each plastic bottle is used on average 27 times, before being melted down.

There should be an awards systems for clean stretches of coast, not just for beaches. "I know of one beach which is cleaned regularly, and the stuff dumped over the other side. I'm sure this is not the only case".

Lastly, consumers should got more involved in combating environmental pollution. They should create less litter and lobby against packaging. "If you don't like the secondary or tertiary packaging, take it off and give it back to the shopkeeper. They won't like that, and soon the message will get back to the producer".

"Look at this bottle", said Ms Dub sky, holding up a used, pale green, plastic Diet Coke bottle.

It was made out of PET plastic, which can usually be recycled. However, because the manufacturer had put colour into the plastic, now it could not.

The bottle had a ring of thickened plastic around the neck, which also militated against it being recycled.

The Autumn Coastwatch survey counted 268,001 plastic bottles along the 6,028km of coastline surveyed. This averages Just under 45 plastic bottles per km of shoreline.

Discarded PET bottles like the one she was holding, Ms Dubsky pointed out, take about 500 years to be broken down in the environment.

Ms Mary Banotti MEP officially launched the report. She, too, picked up the plastic Diet Coke bottle. "It is simply immoral to use green plastic bottles that cannot be recycled", she said. "These bottles will litter the landscape for 500 years. So why are we still making them?"

Afterwards, speaking to The Irish Times, Ms Dubsky suggested further measures which could be taken in the areas where Ireland performed badly, on discarded drinks containers, on plastic bags of domestic waste, on landfill dumps and on marine waste.

Ireland has 17 landfill dumps that go down to the intertidal area. It is now mandatory for every harbour to have reception facilities for oil and other waste yet the survey had found them in only five. Waste discarded into the sea by fishermen and created by the aquaculture industry is becoming an increasingly significant problem.

Also there are areas in Ireland where there is no domestic waste collection.

People living in these rural areas are tempted to put their rubbish in plastic refuse sacks, and dump them in isolated areas or along the coast.