Coastal environments play a key role in maintaining biodiversity and ecological balance. At the same time, marine tourism is one of the main pillars of the marine economy and significantly contributes to the local and national economies. Optimal management of these environments is essential to reduce environmental impacts and increase economic productivity. Recent advances in agent-based modelling (ABM) have enabled a more detailed analysis of the interactions between economic and environmental factors. This study compares two scenarios for waste management, the linear model (LE) and circular model (CE), by designing and implementing an ABM model in a coastal environment, including visitors, entrance gates, shops, and cleaners on the NetLogo platform. In the CE model, visitors are encouraged to behave environmentally responsibly by returning their waste to the entrance gate and receiving a refund of the entrance fee. The results show that the CE model performs better than the LE model in reducing the percentage of beach pollution, attracting more visitors, and generating more revenue in the initial cases (1 to 3 cleaners). However, in cases with a high number of cleaners (4 and 5), the additional costs arising from the salaries of cleaners and the refund of the entrance fee to visitors lead to a decrease in the overall revenue of the CE model to the LE. These findings emphasize that the optimal design of waste management policies and financial mechanisms is essential to balance environmental sustainability and economic efficiency.

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