Duration: 1 June 2025 - 31 May 2028

Funding and financing: BMUKN/ZUG

Project Coordinator: PD Dr.-Ing. habil. Abdallah Nassour.

Project Manager at the professorship: Dr. Andrea Stolte, Dr. Nour El Houda Chaher

Project objective and brief description:

The „Smart Ports“ Project is a collaboration between the University of Rostock and national 
offices of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Türkiye, Tunisia and Italy, where the 
WWF Mediterranean Policy office is based, and the small-scale enterprise Enaleia (Greece).

“Smart Ports” focuses on the reduction of plastic influx into the Mediterranean Sea from
touristic and fisheries harbours. In the Mediterranean, as in many other coastal areas of the
world, single-use plastics are a severe hazard to the marine fauna. Ingestion, entanglement,
smothering of sensitive seafloor habitats, and fragmentation into microplastics affecting the
smallest crustaceans to the largest whales are observed impacts in the Mediterranean Sea.

During the “Smart Ports” project, the team will pilot reuse systems and alternative packaging materials
in gastronomy and hotel businesses as well as in the fishing sector. Waste management systems
for the separate collection of organic and plastic waste will be installed to increase the recycling rate,
additionally contributing to the reduction of plastic influx from pilot harbours in each implementing
country, Tunisia and Türkiye. Enaleia supports the project as a consultant partner for the collection
and recycling of fishing gear. The project started in June 2025 and will be implemented during the
next three years. In 2028, “Smart Ports” will result in guidelines and recommendations for waste
treatment schemes in touristic and fisheries harbours throughout the Mediterranean ecoregion.