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

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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.

UPDATE: Launching Our Citizen Science Initiative

In July, OpenOceans Global publicly launched its online application allowing citizen mappers to document and visualize coastlines around the world that are pervasively fouled by plastic in conjunction with the 2022 Esri User Conference in San Diego. Esri software powers the mapping app.

Press coverage for the launch was outstanding, including coverage by Dagmar Midcap of NBC7 on her Down to Earth segment on July 28, 2022.

Additional press coverage can be found on the OpenOceans Global website.

To add a plastic-fouled coastal area to our Ocean Plastic Map, please click here.

Image credits: NBC7

Did you know?

The restaurant biz generates about 78 percent of all disposable packaging.

Taking a Deeper Dive

A plastic guide for restaurants, industry proactivity, and stalled legislation

According to The Spoon, a food industry trade publication, in an April 11, 2021, article, restaurants account for 78% of disposable packaging in the U.S., much of it plastic.

Beyond Plastics, a nonprofit with a mission of “ending plastic pollution by being a catalyst for change at every level of our society” has produced “A Restaurant’s Guide to Reducing Plastic.” The 47-page guide provides an overview of the problem, and proclaims restaurants are “dynamic sites for leadership and change with economic benefits for all involved. The choices of restaurateurs can go a long way in solving the plastic pollution crisis. It is a uniquely powerful sector!”

The guide provides in-depth information about how restaurants can reduce plastic use and three key reasons to take action:

• Reducing plastic saves money. As an example, switching to reusable dishware often pays for itself, frequently in as little as a few months. This is true even factoring in the expense of dishwashing.
• Reducing plastic appeals to customers. Social and market indicators demonstrate that consumer preference for environmentally sound options is growing and that many customers are willing to pay more and go out of their way for “greener” choices.
• Reducing plastics is the future. As consumer demand continues to shift toward environmentally friendly options, more restaurants will implement “green” practices. Those restaurants already known for their sustainable practices will have a competitive edge over the late adopters.

Industry Proactivity

Restaurant industry insiders report that “because of costs, operational challenges, and differing regulations from state to state, getting rid of single-use plastic is an expensive, time-consuming prospect for many restaurants."

Just Salad, a restaurant in support of the Break Free from Plastic Act, lays out the benefits the act would provide to the restaurant industry:

• More and better reusable programs,
• Fewer single-use plastics, which are a major problem in the restaurant industry because of to-go boxes, bags, and cutlery,
• More standardized recycling and composting across states,
• Acceleration of companies' efforts to reduce the waste and carbon footprint of the industry,
• Create dining experiences that are healthy for people and the planet, and
• Supported by this legislation, restaurant sustainability efforts would have a much larger impact.

Break Free From Plastic Act of 2021

According to Congress.Gov, “the Break Free from Plastic Act makes certain producers of products (e.g., packaging, paper, single-use products, beverage containers, or food service products) fiscally responsible for collecting, managing, and recycling or composting the products after consumer use. In addition, the bill establishes (1) minimum percentages of products that must be reused, recycled, or composted; and (2) an increasing percentage of recycled content that must be contained in beverage containers.” Although the bill was first introduced in February 2021, it remains stalled in committee.

Tracking Plastic News

• California enacts groundbreaking plastic recycling legislation, Smithsonian, July 5, 2022
• The Challenge of Plastic and Achieving Sustainable Packaging, Triple Pundit, April 28, 2022
• The Companies Responsible for the Most Single-Use Plastic Waste in the World, The Street, July 15, 2022
• How Plastic Water Shipments Undermine Real Solutions to Ocean Plastic Pollution, Geneva Environment Network, June 28, 2022 (video)
• Global Plastics Outlook - Policy Scenarios to 2060, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Environmental, June 22, 2022

Mapping Plastic-Fouled Coastlines

See more beaches fouled by plastic on our ocean plastic trash map.

This Month’s Coastal Hotspot: Svalbard, Norway

Svalbard is a Norwegian archipelago between mainland Norway and the North Pole and one of the world’s northernmost inhabited areas. Cleanups remove 20 tons of waste each year. 60 to 80% of the plastic waste comes from the fishing industry. Clean Up Svalbard is a coastal waste-removal program created by the governor of Svalbard in coordination with the Association of Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators. Clean Up Svalbard oversees two yearly beach cleanups conducted by local volunteers from Longyearbyen to combat this problem. Arctic tour operator Oceanwide Expeditions says beach cleanups are highly popular among the company's staff and passengers. All the litter collected during beach cleanups is deposited into a dedicated bin in Longyearbyen, after which it can be processed in an environmentally safe manner. More information can be found in Cleaning up Svalbard, Oceanwide Expeditions. Image credit: Governor of Svalbard

New additions to the ocean plastic trash map include:

• Tumaco, Colombia
• Krabi, Thailand

Solutions

See more solutions on our ocean plastic solutions page. Submit a solution we should know about here.

This Month’s Featured Solution: Clean Currents Coalition

The Clean Currents Coalition is a collaborative network of nine project members combating the flow of plastic waste from rivers to the ocean. In a competitive process in 2019, the Benioff Ocean Initiative selected the members of the Clean Currents Coalition for their innovative technological designs and strategies for eliminating the flow of plastic waste into rivers and the ocean. Benioff partnered with The Coca-Cola Foundation to provide a combined $11 million to support the project. Members of the Coalition work both independently and collaboratively to share knowledge and develop cutting-edge solutions. Using engineering and environmental science, the teams are piloting a diverse set of cutting-edge technologies to capture and remove plastic waste from rivers. Each Clean Currents Coalition team is working in one community on one river system. But together, through collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and a common goal, their ambition is to help replicate these successes to more and more river communities around the world. Image credit: Clean Currents Coalition

Recent additions to our plastic solutions page.

• Shore Buddies
• River Cleaning System

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