Marine litter is present throughout the world's oceans, representing a significant threat to marine ecosystems. While most efforts have focused on assessing ecological impacts, information on the socio-economic dimension of marine litter is scarce. Here we provide a detailed assessment of the direct economic costs of marine litter for a remote region of the North-East Atlantic, the Azores archipelago. Face-to-face interviews were performed to quantify and characterise the costs of marine litter-related incidents and coastal clean-ups to 259 sea-users and 21 local authorities, respectively. Overall, marine litter pollution was estimated to cost a total of €710,698 (±195,181, SD) per year, which is the equivalent to 0.02% of the Gross Domestic Product of the Azores archipelago. Our results demonstrate that marine litter creates costs and inconveniences for a range of stakeholders engaged in marine activities and also increases the waste clean-up budgets of small communities living on remote islands.

海洋垃圾遍布全球海洋，对海洋生态系统构成了重大威胁。尽管大多数努力都集中在评估生态影响上，但有关海洋垃圾的社会经济方面的信息却很少。在这里，我们提供了对东北大西洋偏远地区亚速尔群岛的海洋垃圾直接经济成本的详细评估。进行了面对面的采访，以量化和表征分别与259名海用户和21个地方当局有关的海洋垃圾相关事件和海岸清理的费用。总体而言，海洋垃圾污染估计每年总计花费710,698欧元（±195,181 SD），相当于亚速尔群岛的国内生产总值的0.02％。