Goal #14 - Life Below Water
The health of our oceans is under increased threat from a suite of different anthropogenic activities with detrimental effects on marine ecosystems. Some of these include acidification, land runoff, overfishing and plastic waste pollution.
Societal failure to tackle littering and to ensure effective waste management practices are in place has resulted in heightened levels of plastic waste from land-based sources escaping into the marine environment.
- Leakage of plastics into the environment can come at every stage of the production, manufacturing, distribution, use and disposal pathway.[1]
- Research shows that 10 rivers are responsible for transporting 90% of plastic debris to the oceans, eight of which are located in Asia and two in Africa.[2] Most of this is due to the mismanagement of plastic waste from land-based sources.
- Plastic waste is harmful to the marine ecosystem and the plastic industry is taking measures to help fight the issue of marine litter.
- Although not as often discussed or addressed, researchers have found that fishing nets account for 46% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by mass.[3] Moreover, it is estimated that between 600,000–800,000 metric tonnes of ghost gear enters the ocean each year, with some of it lost during storms and some deliberately dumped.[4]
The BPF is working with companies and organisations across the entire supply chain via Operation Clean Sweep, an international industry initiative that aims to stop plastic pellets from leaking into the environment.[5] The BPF is also collaborating with industry leaders and policymakers as part of the Waste Free Oceans initiative to collect and transform ocean plastic into useful products.[6]
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Graph of global releases of primary microplastics to the oceans, IUCN/plastic debris top ten rivers
Source: Boucher, J. and Friot D. (2017). Primary Microplastics in the Oceans: A Global Evaluation of Sources, IUCN, available at https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/2017-002.pdf]
Marine Litter Facts
The BPF has launched a website focused on educating the public about the realities of marine litter and discussing solutions that stakeholders can implement to fight the scourge of plastic pollution.
It is generally accepted that largest source of leakage of plastic items into the oceans is from a small number of Asian and Pacific Rim countries that account for over 80% of ocean waste. These include China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Egypt, Malaysia, Nigeria and Bangladesh.
The main focus for countries that have high levels of leakage should be on improving waste management infrastructure to prevent plastic and other materials escaping into the environment.
Plastic is a valuable resource and can be recycled into new products, into fuel or into the building blocks of new plastic. It can also be converted into energy to power homes. It has no place in the ocean nor in landfill.
Informal recycling economies already exist in many countries, run by citizens committed to improving their communities. There may be scope for government to build on existing projects and improve their scope, scale and efficiency.
Initiatives such as Plastic Bank give local communities an opportunity to monetise waste — they collect plastic in return for food, shelter, phone charging stations and money.
Governments should be engaged in the sharing of best practice and training on waste management through organisations such as Waste Aid UK.
The plastics industry is already working in some high-leakage countries to help implement best practice in waste management systems.
[1] http://apps.unep.org/repository/free-keywords/plastics
[2] https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=36336&webc_pm=34/2017
[3] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22939-w
[4] https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/how-banish-ghosts-dead-fishing-gear-our-seas
[5] https://www.bpf.co.uk/article/ocs-10-years-of-pellet-loss-1462.aspx
[6] https://www.wastefreeoceans.org/about
