Ocean Conservancy launched the Trash Free Seas Alliance® in 2012 to unite industry, science, and conservation leaders who share a common goal for a healthy ocean free of trash and plastic pollution. The Alliance provides a constructive forum focused on identifying opportunities for cross-sector solutions that drive action and foster innovation. Central to the Alliance’s work is advancing new knowledge, understanding how materials enter our ocean, and identifying cost effective strategies to confront plastic pollution at the global scale. As a signature initiative of the Alliance, Ocean Conservancy worked with the McKinsey Center for Business & Environment to lead a comprehensive study, Stemming the Tide: Land-Based Strategies for Plastic Free Ocean. The report identifies short, middle, and long term solutions for reducing plastic inputs to the ocean, and recommends a concerted program for global action to solve the plastic waste crisis. The American Chemistry Council (ACC) joined the Trash Free Seas Alliance in 2015 and over the past year, we’ve worked together with other members of the Alliance to advance the scientific rigor on the topic of marine debris, explore the potential solution sets for mitigating Marine Litter, and increase public understanding of marine debris and its impacts on the ocean. ACC’s work with the Alliance has been invaluable to advancing a range of initiatives on Marine Litter and to ensuring that actions are aligned with the best science available and that our projects – particularly in the Asia-Pacific region – are effective solutions in reducing the amount of litter entering the ocean.
Please watch this “Stemming the Tide” launch message from Catherine Novelli, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment. In it, she acknowledges the important role that plastics play in our society today and, she also expressed confidence that by “working together we can create meaningful solutions” to keeping plastics out of our oceans.
