How much plastic do you think is in the ocean? Just last week, a paper was published that estimates 5.25 trillion plastic particles, weighing about 269,000 tons, are floating in the ocean. This news helps confirm what many scientists have been saying for years: that plastic pollution in the ocean isn’t just in the famous “garbage patches” – it’s everywhere.
This is very bad news for our ocean. Once in the water, plastic breaks into tiny pieces that collect harmful industrial pollutants. While this paper looks only at the plastic floating in the water, there is much more plastic in other parts of the ocean. Some of the plastic ends up the famous garbage patches – the rest is dispersed throughout the water, resting on the ocean floor and trapped in Arctic ice. This highly-polluted plastic is also ingested by animals.
Plastic bag bans, bottle deposit laws, and other initiatives have been created to help, but unfortunately, these measures alone are far too small to adequately address this global challenge.
The explosive growth of plastics consumption over the next decade will largely take place in rapidly industrializing countries, which also have some of the lowest waste collection rates on the planet. To create a sustainable solution to the problem of ocean plastics, we need to first vastly improve waste management and trash collection in these countries. A solution that tackles this problem at the global level is required. And that’s where an entrepreneurial approach involving the private sector comes in.
Last month I spoke to members of the World Business Council on Sustainable Development. Council members represent companies working on solutions for a more sustainable future. Some corporations are beginning to recognize that plastic trash in the ocean is unacceptable to the millions of people – their customers – who participate in coastal cleanups and who support plastic bag and microbead bans championed by many conservation and community organizations.
Early on, Ocean Conservancy recognized the important role that corporations could play and the need for innovative partnerships to tackle marine debris – it’s why we established the Trash Free Seas Alliance and why corporations such as Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical, Illinois Tool Works and Nestlé Waters were some of the original members. The Alliance brings companies and conservation groups together to address this issue from both ends of the value chain. We are now working together to support improved waste collection in countries where it is desperately needed – and where it will have the biggest impact on reducing ocean trash.
We believe that the solution to this problem rests on a stronger foundation of understanding. With a goal of dramatically increasing plastic recovery rates, we must better understand local waste management value chains, the recycled commodities markets, and the regulatory contexts in which they exist. With this knowledge we can identify how we will work together to create the economic incentives that will make the collection of plastic trash attractive to local investors and entrepreneurs and stop plastic from getting into the ocean.
This isn’t an exercise in altruism – it makes good economic sense. In the absence of a collective response, industry will face a hodgepodge of country-specific regulations, bans, taxes, and levies – all of which are unlikely to add up to an effective solution.
As a solution-oriented conservation organization, we are committed to identifying the upside of waste collection problems from a business perspective. Answering questions about the economic value of the plastic that is lost to the oceans and landfills, the cost effectiveness of recovered plastics compared to virgin materials, and supply and liability concerns will be critical in helping us design a set of solutions that represent a win-win for the ocean and for business.
We need industry partners at the table to help us answer these questions. It’s time for a new, cross-sector approach and we hope that new private-sector partners will join us in the quest to solve this growing global scourge.
Andreas Merkl is the President and CEO of Ocean Conservancy, which is dedicated to the development of new solutions for a changing ocean. Follow Andreas on Twitter: @AndreasMerkl
