The European Litter Prevention Association

Responsible holidays for a cleaner and healthier future

1 July 2016

Thousands of tonnes of litter make their way to our environments, our rivers and seas across Europe each year. As the summer holidays begin, we enter what is probably the most litter-sensitive period of the year for our marine environments. Now is one of the most crucial periods to have the proper litter prevention measures in place in order to protect the rivers and coastlines that are among the favourite holiday destinations.

In France, Vacances Propres estimates that more than 81,000 tonnes of litter ended up in the environment last year - of which more than 6,400 tonnes ended up in rivers and waterways. Through the strategic placement of 2,4 million of its signature bags, Vacances Propres collected around 24,000 tonnes of litter which might have otherwise ended up in the environment.

In order to continue to raise awareness of the importance of disposing of one’s leftovers responsibly, Vacances Propres is re-launching the very successful litter prevention campaign it ran last summer. The key message (loosely translated as) “you can leave a better footprint on earth” - alongside a littered item carrying the name of the perpetrator and the date of the crime - reached an estimated 1.3 billion views.

Vacances Propres is also part of the Clean Europe Network working group on “Litter pathways to the aquatic environment” which aims to develop and disseminate a toolkit specifically intended to prevent litter entering the marine environment. The Clean Europe Network is currently selecting pre-pilot partners to trial the toolkit across Europe.