The challenge of marine plastic litter: upcoming conference 16-17 march 2016.

PlasticsEurope, the association of Plastics Producers in Europe, is hosting a conference in Brussels aimed at bringing together politicians, scientists, academics and industry to address how the plastics industry might provide solutions to this challenge. Discussion points will include innovations, current programs that are acting on marine litter as well as how practices, behaviour and the circular economy can all play a part.

As part of their PolyTalk program, the marine litter conference is titled “Zero Plastics To The Oceans”. It is taking place on 16 and 17 March 2016 in Brussels with more information on their website: http://www.polytalk.eu/

Marine litter is a global problem, with news stories of litter ‘rafts’ the size of Texas being reported in the media. This litter can harm marine life as well as creating an aesthetic issue when it washes up on beaches. Whilst it can be composed of fishing nets that are lost or left in the ocean, shipping wastes or even blown items from land-fill, around 80% of this material is plastic-based.

Globally, around 8.8 million tonnes of plastic waste end up in the oceans each year, with the majority of it being plastic bags, ‘six-pack’ rings as well as other packing materials.