Three years after first having joined hands to combat marine litter, the plastics associations that are signatories of “The Declaration of the Global Plastics Associations for Solutions on Marine Litter” have published another progress report. Since its founding in 2011 (for details, see Plasteurope.com of 24.03.2011), the initiative has grown from 47 members to 60 groups from 34 different countries. By December last year, the declaration’s members had planned, carried out or completed more than 185 different projects – a 90% increase over 2011.

The progress report is the second issued since the initiative first came into being. The first was published in 2012 (see Plasteurope.com of 18.12.2012). Under the declaration, the signatories made six commitments to contribute to solutions to marine litter. The latest report presents some of the declaration’s projects, filed under the respective commitments.

First among them is education, a field in which a number of projects have been carried out, including a marine litter conference for African countries as well as coastal clean-ups in Gulf Cooperation Council member states.

The second commitment relates to research. Initiatives to date include a study of land-based sources of marine litter in European seas (for details, see Plasteurope.com of 28.01.2013). Also part of this focus is the “Bioclean” (www.biocleanproject.eu) European-funded research consortium that aims to find solutions for the degradation of plastic fragments in the marine environment. The group’s initial focus will be on PVC, PS, PP and PE.

The declaration’s signatories also undertook to advocate for effective public policy, including by means of the European plastics chain’s support for the “Zero Plastics to Landfill by 2020 in Europe” vision (see Plasteurope.com of 21.08.2012), as well as coalition building initiatives between law enforcement and businesses in Turkey, among others.

Another commitment undertaken by the declaration’s supporters is to share best practices. In order to do so, European industry, government, scientific and waste experts are gathering once a year at the “Identiplast” international conference, organised by PlasticsEurope (Brussels / Belgium; www.plasticseurope.org). The last event was held in Paris / France last November.

Examples of how the industry has so far engaged in recycling and recovering plastics include anti-litter and recycling initiatives for agricultural plastics in France as well as an improved system for collecting and recycling EPS fish boxes and floats in Japan.

As for commitment number six, the containment of plastic pellets, the US launched an education initiative dubbed “Operation Clean Sweep” (www.opcleansweep.org) that has meanwhile been licensed to associations in 12 different countries as well as Europe, represented by the PlasticsEurope umbrella organisation. In addition, the plastics associations of several other countries are implementing their own pellet containment initiatives.

e-Service:
“The Declaration of the Global Plastics Associations for Solutions on Marine Litter: Progress Report 2014” as a PDF file