Reckoning with the U.S. Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste (2022) / Chapter Skim
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Over the past decade, research on ocean plastic pollution has revealed that plastic waste is present in almost every marine habitat, from the ocean surface to deep-sea sediments to the ocean's vast mid-water region, as well as the Laurentian Great Lakes. An estimated 8 million metric tons (MMT)
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Finally, the committee identified knowledge gaps and recommended potential means to reduce U.S. contributions to global ocean plastic waste.
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While only 4.3% of the world's population lives in the United States, the nation was the top generator of plastic waste and total waste in 2016, with a total plastic waste at 42 MMT and a per capita plastic waste generation of 130 kg/year (Law et al.
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ROLE IN GLOBAL OCEAN PLASTIC WASTE FIGURE S.1 U.S. annual plastic solid waste generation from 1960 to 2018 in million metric tons.
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Conclusion 3: Effective and accessible solid waste management and infrastructure are fundamental for preventing plastic materials from leaking to the environment and becoming ocean plastic waste. Solid waste collection and management are particularly important for coastal and riparian areas where fugitive plastics have shorter and more direct paths to the ocean.
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Conclusion 5: Although recycling will likely always be a component of the strategy to manage plastic waste, today's recycling processes and infrastructure are grossly insufficient to manage the diversity, complexity, and quantity of plastic waste in the United States. Recommendation 1: The United States should substantially reduce solid waste generation (absolute and per person)
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Additionally, major storm events, such as hurricanes, floods, or tsunamis, can deposit massive amounts of debris in a relatively short period. Challenge of Estimating Plastics Entering the Ocean Although there is a fair understanding of the major mechanisms that transport plastic wastes to the ocean, it is difficult to make aggregate estimates of plastic fluxes to the ocean.
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Its distribution and fate in the ocean are a reflection of transport by ocean currents and surface winds, and the degradation of plastics in the ocean. Plastic waste is found throughout the ocean including on coastlines and in estuaries, in the open ocean water column, on the seafloor, and in marine biota (Figure S.4)
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The state of Hawaii is particularly well known for suffering a disproportionately heavy marine debris burden, not only from locally based marine litter but also due to the state's mid-Pacific Ocean location and associated exposure to widely circulated plastic pollution originating throughout the Pacific Rim. Like Hawaii, Alaska coastlines are also a reservoir for significant amounts of plastic debris, which is often characterized by large, buoyant objects such as lines, buoys, and fishing nets.
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found documented cases of entanglement or ingestion by marine biota in 914 species from 747 studies -- 701 species having experienced ingestion and 354 species having experienced entanglement. Ingestion of plastic waste occurs at spatial scales ranging from the planktonic ingestion of micro- and nanoplastics to the ingestion of all sizes of plastic debris by whales (Kühn and van Franeker 2020, Santos, Machovsky-Capuska, and Andrades 2021)
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Role of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project The Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project (MDMAP) is the flagship community science initiative of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Debris Program that engages partner organizations and volunteers to foster a national shoreline monitoring program in support of research, science-based policies, and prevention efforts.
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contribution to global ocean plastic waste. The following describes tracking and monitoring systems of plastic waste items expected to have the greatest efficacy in ultimately reducing plastic waste inputs to aquatic systems.
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Recommendation 2: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin istration (NOAA) Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Proj ect, led by the NOAA Marine Debris Program, should conduct a scientifically designed national marine debris shoreline survey every 5 years using standardized protocols adapted for relevant substrates.
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Tracking and Monitoring: Currently, data collected by various mon itoring efforts are not well integrated. There would be signifi cant value in developing a data and information portal by which existing and emerging marine debris/aquatic plastic waste data sets could be integrated to provide a more complete picture of the efforts currently tracking plastic pollution across the nation.
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INTERVENTIONS TO REDUCE GLOBAL OCEAN PLASTIC WASTE Despite limitations in complete quantification of plastic waste to the ocean, it is clearly ubiquitous and increasing in magnitude. There is no one solution to reducing the flow of plastic waste to the ocean.
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As of 2018, 127 out of 192 countries regulated plastic bags restricting free retail distribution, and 63 countries mandated extended producer responsibility for single-use plastics, including deposit refunds, product take-back, and recycling targets. In addition, the European Union, Canada, and China have established systemic national goals and strategies designed around system-wide interventions.
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