The Global Plastics Alliance (GPA), a collaboration among plastics industry associations and allied industry associations, has released its fourth progress report on marine litter. It summarises the status of commitments made under the "Declaration of the Global Plastics Associations for Solutions on Marine Litter" (www.marinelittersolutions.com).

As of December 2017, around 355 projects have been planned, are underway or are completed. The projects include beach clean-ups, waste management capacity expansions, global research and awareness campaigns, and have been undertaken by 74 associations in 40 countries.

"Our industry associations are actively engaged in solutions to address marine debris," said Callum Chen, secretary-general of the "Asia Plastics Forum". "Particularly in Asia, the plastics value chain is making strides to educate consumers and governments on the ways to keep plastic out of our environment. There is a pressing need for improving waste management infrastructure as a solution to this global challenge." According to Steve Russell, vce president of Plastics, American Chemistry Council, the report showed the progress made by the global plastics industry to help provide solutions to the ocean plastic problem. "Since the 5th International Marine Debris Conference when we first announced the Declaration, we’ve more than tripled the number of projects."

Solutions for ocean plastics waste are necessarily global. Scientists François Galgani – see Plasteurope.com of 18.04.2018 – and Richard Thompson – see Plasteurope.com of 19.04.2018 – are two of the speakers at the upcoming "Polytalk 2018" conference in Malta, where they and numerous other plastics industry stakeholders will discuss the topic of marine litter.

e-Service:
"4th Progress Report" (March 2018) as a PDF file