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IMO Action Plan to address marine plastic litter from ships

  IMO?s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) in 2018 adopted the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Action Plan to address marine plastic litter from ships, which aims to enhance existing regulations and introduce new supporting measures to reduce marine plastic litter from ships.

What is marine litter? 

  Plastic materials in all shapes and sizes are omnipresent in our seas and oceans. They break down extremely slowly in the marine environment, taking in excess of 400 years. Marine litter originates from many sources and causes a wide spectrum of environmental, economic, safety, health and cultural impacts. For example, marine litter can cause harm to sea life if ingested or even death if a marine mammal becomes entangled in litter.

  Marine litter has been defined by UN Environment (United Nations Environment) as “any persistent, manufactured or processed solid material discarded, disposed of or abandoned in the marine and coastal environment. Marine litter consists of items that have been made or used by people and deliberately discarded into the sea or rivers or on beaches; brought indirectly to the sea with rivers, sewage, storm water or winds; accidentally lost, including material lost at sea in bad weather (fishing gear, cargo); or deliberately left by people on beaches and shores.”

   Marine litter, including plastics and microplastics, is known to result from land-based sources in massive quantities but can also originate from ships. Debris particles have been observed in coastal areas, in waters far from anthropogenic pollution sources, in surface waters, in the water column of deep water and in ocean sediments, and from the equator to the poles, including trapped in sea ice.

  UN Environment estimates that 15% of marine litter floats on the sea's surface, 15% remains in the water column and 70% rests on the seabed.

  According to another study, 5.25 million plastic particles, weighing 268,940 tonnes in total, are currently floating in the world”s oceans.

What problems does marinelitter cause? 

  In addition to the environmental and health problems posed by marine litter, floating garbage and plastics pose a costly as well as dangerous problem for shipping, as they can be anavigational hazard and become entangled in propellers and rudders.

  Another problem requiring urgent remedial action is the massive accumulation of plastics, not only in coastal areas but also in the deep sea.

  This litter is harmful to marine life: sea creatures can become trapped inside containers or strangled by nets or ropes, and microplastics can also enter the food chain as they are indigestible when swallowed.

(Adapted from https://www.imo.org