The Transition | December 2022
People and progress in solving the ocean plastic crisis

About OpenOceans Global. Our work centers on mapping ocean plastic, curating the best solutions, and linking together a community of ocean plastic experts and leaders. Learn more on NBC7/39's Down to Earth segment and ArcNews. Past issues of The Transition can be found here.

Happy holidays to you and your family from OpenOceans Global. As we come to the end of the year, please consider OpenOceans Global in your charitable giving.

OpenOceans Global News

• On December 9, 2022, OpenOceans Global was granted accreditation as an observer to the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), the governing body of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). This accreditation allows OpenOceans Global to be an observer at all public meetings and sessions of the UNEA and its subsidiary organizations and to participate in the policy dialogue regarding the International Plastic Treaty and other activities.
   
• OpenOceans Global presented “Ocean Plastic Pollution and Politics – an International Perspective” to the San Diego World Affairs Council on December 6, 2022. Contact us for presentation opportunities to your organization.

Taking a Deeper Dive

As the year draws to an end, this issue of Deeper Dive takes a moment to appreciate the ocean and to share some of the progress and positive actions accomplished around the globe in 2022 in addressing the ocean plastic crisis.

Policy and Collaboration

Recognizing the need to address ocean plastic pollution, a number of policy initiatives moved forward in 2022. These are a few of the most important ones.

• International Plastic Treaty initiated. On March 2, 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) adopted a resolution to end plastic pollution, which sets up an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to draft a legally binding agreement by 2024. The agreement is expected to address the full lifecycle of plastics, including production, design, and disposal, as well as the design of reusable and recyclable products and materials.
   
• The first negotiating session for the plastic treaty. The UNEA-initiated Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-1) met for the first time in Punta del Este, Ecuador, from November 28 to December 2, 2022. The committee is tentatively scheduled to meet again in May 2023 in Paris. The consensus from the December meeting was that many positive conversations set the tone for the discussions ahead. However, it was clear there are some major challenges, including:
  • Should the treaty be bottom-up (national action plans and commitments) or top-down (enforceable global requirements)?
  • Should there be bans on certain types of plastic?
  • What should the rules of procedure be (consensus or voting)?
     
• The 7th International Marine Debris Conference (7IMDC) was held in Busan, Korea, in September. The conference brought together governments, industry, academia, civil society, and all relevant stakeholders to discuss the latest science, strengthen collaborations, find solutions and catalyze action to address the urgent, global problem of marine litter and plastic pollution. Conference proceedings will be available in the first quarter of 2023.

Rivers

With evidence mounting that the vast majority of ocean plastic reaches the ocean via rivers, efforts are building to stop plastic contamination in rivers before it can reach the sea. Local leaders and residents are leading the way in many instances. Here are some examples:

• Sungai Watch designed simple trash barriers and operates a collection, sorting, and up-cycling system; this scalable approach has been applied to 174 rivers in Indonesia, with the goal of placing barriers in every river in Indonesia.
   
• The Pasig River in the Philippines puts more plastic into the ocean than any other. Now a team of 100 river warriors, once volunteers, are paid a basic local income and work daily to clean up the river. In 2022, SMC Corporation, the Rotary Club of Manila, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources joined together to advance the cleanup.
   
• The Ocean Cleanup has placed its River Interceptor technology in rivers in Guatemala, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, the U.S. (Los Angeles), Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand.

The Deep Ocean

Even though it is becoming increasingly apparent that a relatively small percentage of ocean plastic is in the deep ocean, there is still plastic to be found. These are some notable efforts to collect the debris, much of which appears to be fishing gear, with some unsubstantiated reports indicating debris from the Fukushima tsunami might be a significant contributor of plastic in the North Pacific.

• The Ocean Voyages Institute’s 130-foot sustainable sailing cargo ship, the KWAI, returned from a North Pacific cleanup mission with 96 tons (192,000 pounds/87,090 kg) of recovered plastic ghost nets. The 2022 mission brings the group’s total to over 692,000 pounds (313,886 kg/346 tons) of plastic removed from the ocean. This total includes the largest open ocean clean-up in history, 340,000 pounds (154,221 kg/170 tons) which was completed in 2020.
   
• In July 2022, The Ocean Cleanup passed a milestone of collecting more than 100,000 kg (220,462 pounds/110 tons) of plastic from the Pacific Garbage Patch since August 2021.

Recycling and Reuse

Recycling and reuse will continue to be a part of the solution to the ocean plastic crisis. Gains are being made in a number of areas.

• Some of the simplest steps to improve recycling rates involve design. Coca-Cola Company took a seemingly small but important step by announcing that its Sprite bottles will now be clear, instead of green. Clear bottles are easier to move into the recycling stream. The firm is also moving its Fresca, Seagram, and Mello Yello brands to clear packaging and plans to ultimately transition all of its green packaging to clear plastic.
   
• A Chilean firm, Algramo (translation – “by the gram”), says it is leading "the Refill Revolution." Algramo’s circular platform consists of refill stations and reusable smart packaging used to dispense a variety of products. Consumers no longer need to pay for the packaging for each purchase. Instead, they can order products and refill the smart containers with detergent, rice, pet food, and other products by the gram.
   
• Residents of Barrio Mugica, a village of 40,000 people in Buenos Aires, organized a three-waste stream collection service called “A Todo Reciclaje” or “Recycling for All.” It is a collaboration between a waste management and recycling firm, the local government, and 400 resident waste workers who are the backbone of the program. They teach their neighbors how to separate trash, recyclables, and organics. They collect and hand off recyclables and organics to motorcyclists who move them to a nearby plant where locals weigh, separate, and bale material for sale. The organics are transferred to a treatment facility.
   
• ByFusion has developed a product that is the first construction-grade building material made entirely from plastic waste. The firm creates ByBlocks, utilizing steam and compression to forge recovered plastic waste into building materials that can replace concrete blocks.