“#BeatPollution! We are the solution!”

Sometimes change comes through good planning and hard work. Progress is made, step by step, and it can take a long time.

Then there are times when things move to a different beat.

That’s how it felt yesterday at a United Nations Environment Assembly event on the fight against marine plastic pollution. Kristal Ambrose, Founder and Director of the Bahamas Plastic Movement, led the discussion and had participants chanting “#BeatPollution! We are the solution!” to a rap beat.

Having energized the room, it was down to work.

Kristal Ambrose, Founder and Director, Bahamas Plastic Movement

Vidar Helgesen, Minister of Climate and Environment, Norway

Karen Raubenheimer, Research Fellow, ANCORS, University of Wollongong, Australia

Rolph Payet, Executive Secretary of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions

Previous sessions of the United Nations Environment Assembly have increased momentum towards tackling the global problem of marine plastic pollution. It’s time to increase that momentum, said Vidar Helgesen, Norway’s Minister of Climate and Environment.

Helgesen called on the international community to match Norway’s commitment and “embrace a zero-emission vision for the ocean in order to cure plastic pollution”.

Norway is proposing a resolution, co-sponsored by Australia, Iraq and Monaco, at this year’s Environment Assembly focusing on eliminating plastic from the marine environment. Norway wants to make reduction and sound management of plastic waste the highest priority.

Countries at the assembly have been discussing the barriers to reducing marine litter and proposing measures to address the gaps identified in a report commissioned by UN Environment. The comprehensive resolution, which will be considered for final approval today, establishes that member states shall get together and further consider these gaps in the global governance structures, including legal options, and report back to the next assembly in 2019.

Tu Ruihe, Deputy Director General of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China, said his country will take action in four areas: it will pass new laws, monitor plastic in the environment, encourage public participation and support international cooperation.

“Plastic waste is not an environmental problem, it is an economic problem,” said Rolph Payet, Executive Secretary of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions, all of which deal with waste and pollution. “We are victims of our own prosperity. We need better laws to solve problems on the ground.”

Costas Velis is leader of the Marine Litter Task Force of the International Solid Waste Association, which promotes sustainable waste management worldwide. Velis said “global systemic failures” cause marine litter. He said until waste collection schemes are available to everyone on the planet, “we will not be able to solve this global challenge.” He added that sound collection schemes would lead to immediate results.

“There are no global agreements, there is no international institution and no global standards to fight marine litter,” said Karen Raubenheimer, a Research Fellow with ANCORS at the University of Wollongong in Australia. “Efforts are fragmented and inadequate.”

Jocelyn Bleriot, Head of Public Affairs at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, told the audience that it’s not just a government issue either. When 40 per cent of plastic goes into landfill, everyone has a role in curbing pollution, he said.

“More oil is being used to make more plastic every year, which increases CO2.” Bleriot suggested three strategies to fight marine plastics: “redesign, reuse and recycle.

Eirik Oland, Head of External Affairs for Green Dot Norway, referred to the recent creation of an environmental fund based on voluntary commitments by Norwegian retailers and their organisations that will contribute five Euro cents for every bag issued in participating outlets. “This adds up to approximately 45 million Euros per year,” he said, which will be used to support projects to fight litter.

Payet’s assessment of the chances of success echoed the upbeat mood of the session: “We can solve it!”

The event was hosted by the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment and organized by GRID-Arendal and the Global Partnership on Marine Litter.