Campaign head Mihaela Bogeljic said that keeping beaches clean was important but that that alone was not the solution as small fragments of plastic were almost impossible to remove from the sea.
To illustrate where disposable plastic ends up after being used and to bring to the public's attention the fact that there are already 1,455 tonnes of plastic waste in the Adriatic, the Greenpeace activists staged a performance on the island town's Saplunara beach, with a huge plastic bottle, a cup and a straw floating in the water.
The Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior III boat has been sailing in the Adriatic for several days to warn about the problem of plastic waste pollution and the fact that it particularly affects the southern Dalmatian islands whose residents, helped by volunteers and visitors, fight plastic waste pollution throughout the year, Greenpeace said in a statement, warning that the Mljet National Park was affected by pollution as well.
"Southern winds wash huge amounts of waste ashore on Mljet, Vis, Lastovo, Solta and other beautiful islands that lie parallel to the coast... Most of that waste is plastic which gradually fragments and stays in the sea for hundreds of years," said Hrvoje Cizmek of the "20000 miles" sea research society, which has documented the state of the sea bed around the Mljet National Park in cooperation with Greenpeace, which called on citizens to sign its petition against disposable plastic.