Linking marine litter accumulation and beach user perceptions on pocket beaches of Northern Sardinia (Italy)

Marine litter is a global issue, and one way to face this problem is to increase citizen knowledge and awareness. In our study, we analyzed and quantified the abundance of marine litter on 5 pocket beaches located in North Sardinia. From the 7975 collected items, plastic was the most important litter category. Regarding the MLs' sources, no-sourced and public litter were the most abundant. Waste density is quite high and characterized by great variability, due to two site-specific factors: geomorphological control and human influences. Those key aspects underlying the importance of further understanding marine debris fate and transport and human behaviors because they denote a crucial role to achieve effective marine debris management. In addition, social surveys were performed to assess users' perceptions and knowledge of marine litter. The results of the interviews show that people are aware of the negative impacts that may arise from the presence of waste, and recognized that the presence of litter on the beach is mainly due to human behavior. However, the comparison of beach users’ perceptions and the marine litter collected reveals that users only have partial knowledge of the waste composition, requiring further actions involving different targets.