Tackling marine litter: from coastal clean-up to decision making

To discuss this issue and the tools that can be used in the struggle against this marine litter problem (awareness, clean-ups, audits, etc.), the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), through the AFD-Funded SWAP (Committing to Sustainable Waste Actions in the Pacific) project hosted a two-hour virtual meeting in April 2022.

Plastics that are purposefully thrown from shore, from boats or are accidentally transported by winds or streams are a significant cause of marine pollution. Invasive species, contaminated wastewaters, industrial, agricultural, and household trash, as well as junk from ships also pollute ocean waters.

Globally, marine debris has a detrimental impact on the environment, people, and coastal economy. This issue is significantly worse for nations that depend on healthy ocean ecosystems and services, such as the Pacific region which is 98% covered by water.

Promoting cooperation among Pacific Island countries and territories to protect and improve their environment and ensure sustainable development is the main goal of SPREP, through all the projects and programmes it implements. Waste Management, including Marine Litter Management, is one of the SPREP’s priorities. To this end, The Committing to Sustainable Waste Actions in the Pacific (SWAP) Project conducted a two-hour virtual workshop on 6 April 2022 to talk about this problem and the resources that may be utilised to address it (awareness, clean-ups, audits, etc.).

Six expert speakers contributed to the discussion with their knowledge and skills in this area, including.
 

SWAP coordinator, Ms Julie Pillet, began the workshop with an overview of the current state of marine litter in the world, based on data from the United Nations. Plastic products make up most of the marine litter, as the main elements of marine debris come from the human living environment entering the oceans. In addition, the recent COVID-19 has raised concerns about further plastic waste discarding on the environment. Ms Pillet also pointed out the need to take action as soon as possible, as such marine litter has an impact on the marine ecosystem, climate, economy and human health.

Co-founder and former programme director of Sustainable Coastlines, Mr. Camden Howitt highlighted the need for data collection by citizens based on his programme experience.

“We enable communities to collect data so really rigorous citizen science collects data that is long term to understand the problem to gain insights both through their experiences in nature and through the technology that we’ve developed to gain access to the data to look at comparisons and look at long term trends and then finally taking action.”

Ms Sarah Kollar, Outreach Manager, International Coastal Clean-up (ICC) / Trash Free Seas®Program Ocean Conservancy, supported the importance of collecting data on marine litter and shared her experience with clean-up campaigns over the past decades to demonstrate how this data can influence local and national policies toward marine litter.

Chief Executive Officer of the Vanuatu Environmental Science Society (VESS), Ms Christina Shaw, added that they “didn't have huge amounts of data from small clean-ups but that’s enough to actually be able to influence the policy and the effect of the bands.”

In other words, data collection can be a very effective means of obtaining the necessary legal and financial support to sustainably tackle marine litter issues. Additionally, as the marine litter problem is an international issue, it is important to make the data clearer and to help increase awareness of the issue.

The workshop session also covered another important lesson: community participation. Wallis and Futuna's experience shows that in small island nations, it is not about the scope of the clean-up, but rather about the people.

The International Coastal Clean-up Day is the world's largest beach and overseas line clean-up campaign, which has been taking place on the third Saturday of September every year since 1986. In the 35 years, the clean-up has grown significantly since the first clean-up. Each year, volunteers from states and regions across the US and more than 150 countries come together to take part in clean-ups in places close to home.

These Clean-Up programmes also benefit greatly from financial and logistical support from regional or global initiatives such as SWAP and the national or municipal governments. As such, the SWAP and other projects implemented by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, including the Pacific Ocean Litter Project and the GEF ISLANDS Project sponsored almost 60 Pacific communities to carry out costal clean-ups and awarness-raising activities, as part of the International Coastal Clean-up Day.
 

Note: This story has been developed with the support of the University of Newcastle (Australia) as part of a partnership between SWAP and the University through Work Integrated Learning. As such, the SWAP coordinator acknowledges all the students involved in this collaboration, including Mr. Kaito Nagata and Mr. Chris Johnson for this article.