Transcript CCB Marine litter - Coalition Clean Baltic

Introduction to Marine Litter
Our Common Baltic 2015
Hildur Hardardottir
What is marine litter?
• Global concern and complex transboundary
issue with no easy fix
• High on the environmental agenda (MSFD)
• Poses environmental, economic, health and
aesthetic problems
• Poor waste management, infrastructure and
low awareness
• Symbol of inefficient economy = resource
loss/waste
• Best solution = circular economy THE R´s
What is marine litter?
• 60-85% of marine waste consists of plastic
• Big threat because it´s durable, floats and travels long
distances
• 1950 = 1.5 million tonnes
• 2008 = 245 million tonnes
• 2050 = tripled!
• In 2008, of 25 Mt of plastic waste only 5.3 Mt was
recycled
• Economic damage (in 2010)
– Cost across EU for beach cleaning was approx. 60 million
EUR/year
– Cost to fishing industry 60 million EUR/year
– 1% of total revenues of EU fishing fleet
Main sources of marine litter
• Land-based activities
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land-fills
rivers and floodwaters
industrial outfalls
discharge from storm water drains
untreated municipal sewerage
littering of beaches, coastal areas (tourism)
• Sea-based activities
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fishing industry
shipping (eg. transport, tourism)
offshore mining and extraction
illegal dumping at sea
discarded fishing gear
Stomach contents of a northern fulmar
– North Sea
Image courtesy of OSPAR/KIMO, photograph Jan van Franeker.
Microplastics
• Plastics smaller than 5 mm
• 80% of marine litter is microplastics
• Primary: manufactured for direct use (scrubs, toothpaste) or indirect
use (pellets)
• Secondary: formed by fragmentation of larger plastic items, fibres from
washing clothes, car tires, boat paint etc
• Contain chemicals and can absorb and concentrate contaminants (eg
pesticides) from surrounding seawater
• Emerging evidence of transfer of chemicals from ingested plastics to
tissues of marine creatures
• Ingestion of microplastics harms physiology of organisms and
compromise their fitness
• Risk that it travels the food chain higher up to human consumption!
The pathway of microplastics in the
marine environment
Illustration: BUND, Germany
Frequency of occurrence of polymers in 42 studies of
microplastics at sea or in marine sediments
Polymer type
% studies (n)
Polyethylene (PE)
79 (33)
Polypropylene (PP)
64 (27)
Polystyrene (PS)
40 (17)
Polyamide (nylon) (PA)
17 (7)
Polyester (PES)
10 (4)
Acrylic (AC)
10 (4)
Polyoximethylene (POM)
10 (4)
Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)
7
(3)
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
5
(2)
Poly methylacrylate (PMA)
5
(2)
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
2
(1)
Alkyd (AKD)
2
(1)
Polyurethane (PU)
2
(1)
From Hidalgo-Ruz et al. 2012
Common microplastics found in
personal care products
Social aspects
• Marine litter and microplastics have negative
social and economic impacts
– Reduces ecosystem services
– Compromises perceived benefit
• Public engagment and education helps rasie
awareness and promote positive behaviour
change
• Increased awareness of citizens:
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Political pressure
Personal behaviour change
Acceptence of new products
Influence commercial impacts (STOP THE BEAD!)
Image reproduced from Buckley and Pinnegar 2011
Campaigns
Marine litter in the Baltic Sea
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The MARLIN project: a monitoring project in the Baltic Sea
– Aim to increase knowledge and data as well as raise awareness among the public and
policy makers
Monitored beaches in Sweden, Finland, Estonia and Latvia
Cigarette butts most common litter
– 301,9 cigarette butts/100m at urban beaches
Next most common
– unidentified pieces of plastic – fragmented plastics/microplastics
Other common
– Glass fragments
– Plastic bottle caps and lids
– Plastic bags
– Foamed plastic
– Food containers
– Candy wrappers
It´s from our modern take-away lifstyle!
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Sea-based sources such as shipping not as common source in the Baltic Seas in for example
the North East Atlantic (ie ropes, fishing gear etc.)
However, the Baltic Sea lacks strong surface currents and tidal water MEANING there could be
hot spots of sea-bed litter
More research is needed!
Microplastics in the Baltic Sea
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A study of the Baltic Sea Region revealed that annually 130 tons of
microplastics from care products are flushed down the household drains and,
due to ineffective filtering by sewage treatment plants, up to 40 tons of
microplastics end up in the Baltic Sea
EU policy level
• Marine Strategy Framework Directive
• Aims to achieve Good Environmental Status
in the EU by 2020, consists of 11 descriptors
• Most important current legislative tool for
marine litter in the EU
• Marine litter is descriptor nr 10:
“Properties and quantities of marine litter do
not cause harm to the coastal and marine
environment”
Contribution of other EU policies or
legislation
• A Strategy to reduce plastic waste in the
environment
– implementing better waste management
• A Directive to reduce the use of plastic
bags
– agreed on 28 April 2015
• The Port Reception Facility Directive
– outlining responsibility in delivery of shipgenerated waste at EU ports
Regional policy level - HELCOM
• Regional Action Plan for Marine Litter
• Key responsibility is in the hands of the
member states of HELCOM
– Together with the industry and the civil society.
• Main actions:
– Establish an overview of sources in the Baltic
Sea, including products and processes
– Influence the legal frameworks
– Address waste water treatment plants 
promote best available techniques for filtering
to prevent microplastics entering the sea
CCB´s work
• What do we want?
– Ban microplastics from consumer care
products by law
– Set up EU marine litter reduction target of
50% by 2025
– Baltic Sea States fully implement HELCOM
Regional Action Plan on Marine Litter,
applying innovative and radical reduction
strategies
Joint campaign against
microplastics in cosmetics
• Increase awareness about existence and
problems of microplastics in consumer
products
• Support consumers to make informed choices
• Suggest improvements to address the
problem, e.g. wastewater treatment,
upstream solutions in washing machines.
• Bring findings to stakeholders and companies
and commit them to act on the problem
Marine litter monitoring
• Bridge knowledge and data gaps
– Baseline for policy
– How do we know when we have improved?
• CCB wants to act as a regional node in the
BSR – to facilitate and support NGOs in the
region to contribute to awareness and
knowledge of marine litter in the Baltic Sea
Thank you for listening!