The Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle and Marine Debris

A number of scientific studies have concluded that plastic litter in the ocean is the result of poor or insufficient waste management and lack of sufficient recycling and recovery facilities. Working in partnership, industry, NGOs, national governments, and the United Nations have determined that good prevention and waste management are the keys to keeping used plastics out of our oceans. As a signature initiative of its Trash Free Seas Alliance®, Ocean Conservancy worked with the McKinsey Center for Business & Environment to lead a comprehensive study, Stemming the Tide: Land-Based Strategies for a Plastic-Free Ocean. The report identifies solutions for reducing plastic inputs to the ocean and recommends a program for global action to solve the problem. Here are some of the study’s major recommendations:

• Close leakage points within local collection systems by optimizing transport systems to eliminate illegal dumping

• Close or improve dump sites located near waterways, and increase waste collection rates by offering expanded services

• Keep leakage points closed by increasing the value of waste, and manually sort waste in rural areas to extract high value plastic waste for recycling

• Convert non-recycled waste into fuel

• Deploy a mix of waste-to-fuel or waste-to-electricity technologies in cities Solid waste planning objectives must leverage the waste management hierarchy, which emphasizes waste reduction and reuse followed by recycling and energy recovery. Learning to view post-use materials as resources for manufacturing and renewable energy will help keep valuable materials out of waterways and landfills and in productive economic use.