Reckoning with the U.S. Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste (2022) / Chapter Skim
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6 Tracking and Monitoring Systems for Ocean Plastic Waste
6 Tracking and Monitoring Systems for Ocean Plastic Waste
Pages 115-140
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From page 115... ...
Optimal systems will contribute to identifying and understanding the sources, transport pathways, distribution, and fate of ocean plastic waste, including legacy waste, to inform source reduction strategies or policies at multiple, if not all, intervention stages. As noted in previous chapters, there are still immense gaps in understanding these processes, and there is an opportunity to utilize and expand tracking and monitoring programs to fill these gaps.
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From page 116... ...
. Tracking and monitoring are two tightly related methods; in this report, tracking means following the transport of marine debris over time, whereas monitoring typically involves detection and measurement of plastic waste in the environment at various temporal and spatial scales.
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From page 117... ...
The chapter gives particular attention to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project (MDMAP)
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From page 118... ...
states may not have the same focus and funding profile, lessons learned in California and other states can inform state and national efforts through research, removal, and prevention experiences. Discrete, competitive ad hoc funding is appropriately employed to identify and fund hypothesis-driven research on aquatic plastic pollution but does not operate as a plastic waste tracking and monitoring system.
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From page 119... ...
Data collected and shared through the MDMAP are also intended to foster capacity at the local level in developing marine debris mitigation strategies to reduce impacts (NOAA Marine Debris Program.
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From page 120... ...
The most extensive study on the benefits and challenges of existing marine debris monitoring programs, including MDMAP, is provided by Hardesty et al.
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From page 121... ...
is now available that mimics the paper data card, albeit with limited items. The full ICC data card is also integrated into the mobile app Marine Debris Tracker (described below)
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From page 122... ...
Marine Debris Tracker was an early example of the successful application and acceptance of app use in community science, and remains the foremost and most comprehensive extant plastic pollution app. Supporting Plastic Waste Mitigation with Monitoring Data Data integration between electronically collected databases can provide a more complete picture of plastic waste and marine debris in the United States.
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From page 123... ...
The United Nations' Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific's Closing the Loop program3 seeks to reduce plastic waste entering the ocean. This program has four main components: a plastic pollution calculator, a digital mapping tool informed by monitoring efforts, local action plans, and resource sharing.
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From page 124... ...
The calculator provides information on sources, pathways, hotspots, and sinks of plastic waste to inform interventions to reduce ocean plastics. A digital mapping tool can examine images to determine the presence of plastic waste that could enter the ocean.
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From page 125... ...
Data collected on marine debris items during coastal cleanups may illustrate waste management issues at local,
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From page 126... ...
The timing of tracking and monitoring efforts will also shape the resulting findings. Widespread geographic monitoring at a "single" point in time can provide a static "snapshot" of aquatic plastic waste at various spatial or temporal scales; this type of monitoring is also known as standing stock sampling or standing stock surveys (Opfer, Arthur, and Lippiatt 2012, Ryan et al.
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From page 127... ...
This has been possible through U.S. federal programs such as the National Marine Debris Monitoring Program, which ran from 1996 through 2007 (Ribic et al.
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From page 128... ...
Some challenges related to designing a tracking and monitoring system include the following: • inaccessible data, including proprietary data, which is why open, accessible data are so important; • difficulty in collecting data over time for a large area such as the entire United States and its territories; • limited data collection and analysis speed (which is improving with near-real-time data available from sites such as the Marine Debris Tracker) ; • rapid and episodic changes in plastic use for which it is difficult to predict and plan monitoring (e.g., increased single-use plastic consumption and waste during the COVID-19 pandemic)
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From page 129... ...
Current analytical practices are insufficient to detect environmental plastics at nanoscale sizes. Available and Emerging Technologies Intergovernmental agencies, environmental groups, and the research community have begun to assess all existing and emerging technologies for tracking and monitoring marine plastic debris, including in situ sensing, remote sensing, and numerical modeling, toward the goal of an integrated marine debris observing system (Maximenko et al.
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From page 130... ...
Specifically, passive optical remote sensing is the most explored option with demonstrated potential in literature for inland, coastal, and open ocean marine debris detection (see Martínez- Vicente et al. 2019, Maximenko et al.
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From page 131... ...
2020) to detect marine plastic debris in inland, coastal, and open ocean environments.
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From page 132... ...
provided for an "Interagency Committee," later amended by the Marine Debris Research, Prevention, and Reduction Act of 2006 (Marine Debris Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1954, as amended)
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From page 133... ...
. GAO suggested enhanced coordination among federal, local, state, and international governments and other nonfederal partners to address marine debris, as well as research on sources, pathways, and location of marine debris, inclusive of upstream elements such as rivers and stormwater.
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From page 134... ...
The specific type or types of plastic waste addressed by any system, including polymer types, associated chemicals, or other characteristics or parameters of interest, will necessarily reflect the aims and drivers of those entities establishing the tracking and monitoring system. • Tracking and monitoring systems that are scientifically robust, hypothesis-driven, and conceptualized a priori to answer critical knowledge gaps, rather than approaches applied post hoc to plastic waste tracking and monitoring questions.
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From page 135... ...
A summary of marine debris/aquatic plastic waste tracking and monitoring systems and the intersection of such systems in addressing key aquatic plastic waste mitigation aims is provided in Table 6.1. This table illustrates that no single system or component serves as a comprehensive, stand-alone, national marine debris tracking and monitoring system.
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From page 136... ...
136 TABLE 6.1 A Summary of Marine Debris/Aquatic Plastic Waste Tracking and Monitoring Systems, Components, or Technologies and Their Intersection in Addressing Key Aquatic Plastic Waste Mitigation Aims Mitigation Aims Size Class Identify Assess Sampled Source Identify Progress in Reduce or Reduction Cleanup Reducing Inputs to Inform System, Component, or Technology Tracked Priorities Priorities U.S. Inputs Ocean Policy Community/citizen science/traditional Micro and indigenous community cleanups Meso Macro Community/citizen science/traditional Meso and indigenous community data Macro collection and surveys Industry/corporate effortsa Micro Macro Municipal solid waste organizations Micro and entities Macro Derelict fishing gear surveys Macro Passive or static capture systemsb Macro Remote sensing applications Macro Government/agency effortsc Meso Macro
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From page 137... ...
Trashwheel, retention booms, capture devices, stormwater structures, outflow pipe of wastewater treatment plant. c For example, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U.S.
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From page 138... ...
KNOWLEDGE GAPS Currently, data collected by various monitoring efforts are not well integrated. There would be significant 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
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From page 139... ...
Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project, led by the NOAA Marine Debris Program, should conduct a scientifi cally designed national marine debris shoreline survey every 5 years using standardized protocols adapted for relevant substrates. The survey should be designed by an ad hoc committee of experts con vened by NOAA in consultation with the Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee, including the identification of strategic shoreline monitoring sites.
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From page 140... ...
This will aid in iden tifying and monitoring leakage points and accumulation regions, which will guide removal and prevention efforts and enable assessments of trends.
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