(SitNews) - The United States should create a national strategy by the end of 2022 to reduce its contribution to plastic waste in the ocean, including substantially reducing the amount of solid waste generated in the U.S., says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

This new report also recommends the U.S. establish a nationally coordinated and expanded monitoring system to track plastic pollution in order to understand the scale and sources of the U.S. plastic waste problem, set reduction and management priorities, and measure progress in addressing it.

U.S. Senators Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island.) and Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey.), and Representatives Suzanne Bonamici (D-Oregon) and Don Young (R-Alaska) - champions of the 2020 Save Our Seas (SOS) 2.0 Act, the most comprehensive marine debris legislation ever - Thursday welcomed a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine entitled “Reckoning with the U.S. Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste.”

The report, mandated by the SOS 2.0 Act and sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), synthesizes all existing research on marine debris and presents a stark assessment of the amount of plastic that enters the world’s oceans.

The Save Our Seas 2.0 Act is composed of three main pieces:

1. Strengthening the United States’ domestic marine debris response capability with a Marine Debris Foundation, a genius prize for innovation, and new research to tackle the issue.
2. Enhancing global engagement to combat marine debris, including formalizing U.S. policy on international cooperation, enhancing federal agency outreach to other countries, and exploring the potential for a new international agreement on the challenge. 
3. Improving domestic infrastructure to prevent marine debris through new grants for and studies of waste management and mitigation.

According to this new report, an estimated eight million metric tons (MMT) of plastic waste enters the world’s oceans each year - the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck of plastic waste into the ocean every minute. If current practices continue, the amount of plas­tic waste discharged into the ocean could reach up to 53 MMT per year by 2030, roughly half of the total weight of fish caught from the ocean annually. The study’s key recommendation is that the United States create a com­prehensive federal research and policy strategy that focuses on interventions across the entire plastic life cycle to reduce the U.S. contribu­tion of plastic waste to the environment, including the ocean.

Champions of the 2020 Save Our Seas (SOS) 2.0 Act, commented on this new report.

“I want to share my appreciation for the experts at the National Academies study committee and the NOAA Marine Debris Office for their critical work on this landmark analysis that deepens our understanding of the challenge of marine debris,” said Senator Sullivan.

Sullivan said, “This report is a sobering reminder of the scale of this problem, which impacts Alaska more than any other state with our 6,600 miles of coastline. The research and findings compiled here by our best scientists will serve as a springboard to our future legislative efforts to tackle this entirely solvable environmental challenge and better protect our marine ecosystems, fisheries, and coastal economies.”

“This National Academies study, carried out at the direction of our Save Our Seas 2.0 law, illustrates the mind-boggling scale of the global ocean plastic problem and how the U.S. contributes to it,” said Senator Whitehouse.

Whitehouse said, “There’s a bipartisan tradition of ocean stewardship in the Senate, and I look forward to working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to keep making progress cleaning up this harmful mess.”

“The National Academies plastic waste report, which emphasizes the negative impact of plastic pollution on coastal tourism, property values, and fisheries, is especially relevant to the safety and prosperity of communities in coastal states like New Jersey,” Senator Menendez said.

Menendez said, “As the United Nation’s Environment Assembly initiates negotiations on a global agreement to combat plastic pollution this February, we are committed to ensuring the advances made in SOS 2.0 continue to guide the United States’ environmental and climate leadership on the world stage.”

“Marine debris is a threat to the health of the ocean and the species that depend on it for survival,” said Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici.

Bonamici said, “I am encouraged that this report, required by the Save our Seas 2.0 Act, which I helped lead, focuses on the importance of interventions across the entire plastic lifecycle. Improving our monitoring and waste management efforts will be important but not sufficient. We must significantly reduce the creation of plastic debris. I look forward to the implementation of this report’s findings and the continued development of policies to address this critical environmental issue.”

“Healthy oceans are essential to Alaska's economy and way of life. As Co-Chair of the House Oceans Caucus, monitoring and eliminating marine debris has been one of my highest priorities,” said Congressman Don Young.

Young said, “Last Congress, I was proud to help champion Save our Seas 2.0, which is now law, and I am pleased to see this vital effort is producing results. I am grateful to everyone at the Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine who helped make this report possible. I will keep standing up for the health of our waters, and look forward to continuing to work with friends on both sides of the aisle to ensure recommendations from this report are explored and implemented.”

The Report

Reckoning with the U.S Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste (Purchase Required) concludes plastic waste in the U.S. is ubiquitous and increasing. Worldwide, at least 8.8 million metric tons of plastic waste enter the world’s oceans each year - the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck of plastic into the ocean every minute -and in 2016 the U.S. generated more plastic waste than any other country, exceeding that of all European Union member states combined.

Plastic waste has devastating impacts on the ocean’s health, marine wildlife, and communities. Without changing current practices, the report says, plastics will continue to accumulate in the ocean with adverse consequences.

The report says our current recycling processes and infrastructure are grossly insufficient to manage the complexity and quantity of plastic waste produced, and that a large portion of plastic waste is disposed of in landfills. While the U.S. solid waste management system is advanced overall, the committee that wrote the report concluded there is both a need and opportunity to expand and evolve municipal solid waste management in the U.S. to ensure it better manages plastic waste, and serves communities and regions equitably, efficiently, and economically.

“Plastic waste is an environmental and social crisis that the U.S. needs to affirmatively address from source to sea,” said committee chair Margaret Spring, chief conservation and science officer at Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Spring said, “Plastic waste generated by the U.S. has so many consequences — impacting inland and coastal communities, polluting our rivers, lakes, beaches, bays, and waterways, placing social and economic burdens on vulnerable populations, endangering marine habitats and wildlife, and contaminating waters upon which humans depend for food and livelihoods.”

A National Strategy

The report recommends the U.S. establish a coherent, comprehensive, and crosscutting federal policy and research strategy to reduce its contribution of plastic waste to the environment and ocean. This strategy should be developed by a group of experts, or external advisory body, by Dec. 31, 2022. The strategy’s implementation should be assessed by Dec. 31, 2025.

Recognizing U.S. actions taken to date, no single solution will be sufficient to address the problem, the report says, and therefore the national strategy should employ a suite of interventions at every stage of plastics’ flow into the ocean. It should also build on efforts underway, fill gaps in coverage, and apply lessons learned in the U.S. and other countries.

Taking a leadership role in preventing plastic pollution would position the U.S. to shape and influence global plastic production, design, and innovation — and possibly create new economic opportunities, the report says. While government will play a critical role in organizing a national strategy, collaboration across actors in plastic waste systems will be essential, as will a robust monitoring and research program and active public engagement.

The report lays out six intervention stages that the strategy should address:

• Reducing plastic production, especially for plastics that are not reusable or practically recyclable, thereby decreasing the need for waste management — for example, by establishing a national cap on virgin plastic production.
• Innovating design and materials to develop substitutes that degrade more quickly or can be more easily recycled or reused, such as through government-sponsored research and development collaborations.
• Decreasing waste generation by reducing the use of disposable plastic products intended for short periods of use, including by limiting products and creating targets for recycling — for example, by creating a ban on specific products based on their toxicity or necessity.
• Improving waste management, including infrastructure, collection, treatment, leakage control, and accounting — for example, by establishing regulatory limits on plastic or microplastic waste discharged into the ocean by river systems.
• Capturing waste in the environment, including from ground litter, storm water, or directly from waters where it accumulates — such as during river or beach cleanups.
• Minimizing at-sea disposal by directly targeting the flow of plastic from vessels or platforms - for example, by increasing enforcement for dumping trash at sea.

U.S. Contributions to Plastic in the Ocean

The committee was asked to estimate U.S. contributions to global ocean plastic waste, including both plastics produced in the U.S. and plastics made elsewhere that enter U.S. waste streams. The report presents several scientific estimates, but cautions that precisely defining U.S. contributions is not possible given gaps in data, monitoring, and reporting under existing law. The known estimates, while likely conservative, convey the enormous scale of the problem.

The report also confirms U.S. contributions to waste and production are outsized compared with other nations. Previous studies have found that Americans generate on average between 4.5 and 6 pounds of solid waste every day — which is between 2 and 8 times the waste generation in many countries. In 2016 the U.S. generated 42 million metric tons of plastic waste, the largest mass of any other country. In addition, U.S. plastic production has consistently increased each year since the 1960s.

Tracking and Measuring Plastic Waste

Data collection is critical to better understanding the sources, extent and patterns of plastic waste in the ocean, and priorities for prevention, management, and cleanup. The report recognizes gaps in the data, as well as the potential for integrating and enhancing existing monitoring systems. The U.S. should establish multiple complementary tracking and monitoring systems to help identify sources and hotspots, understand the scale of the plastic waste problem, and measure progress in addressing it.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment project should conduct a national shoreline survey every five years, the report says. In addition, federal agencies with mandates over coastal and inland waters should establish new or enhanced monitoring programs, coordinated across agencies.

The study — undertaken by the Committee on United States Contributions to Global Ocean Plastic Waste  - was sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln.

Reckoning With The U.S. Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste 2021 (Purchase Required) reporsts an estimated 8 million metric tons (MMT) of plastic waste enters the world's ocean each year - the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck of plastic waste into the ocean every minute. Plastic waste is now found in almost every marine habitat, from the ocean surface to deep sea sediments to the ocean's vast mid-water region, as well as the Great Lakes. This report responds to a request in the bipartisan Save Our Seas 2.0 Act for a scientific synthesis of the role of the United States both in contributing to and responding to global ocean plastic waste.

The United States is a major producer of plastics and in 2016, generated more plastic waste by weight and per capita than any other nation. Although the U.S. solid waste management system is advanced, it is not sufficient to deter leakage into the environment. Reckoning with the U.S. Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste calls for a national strategy by the end of 2022 to reduce the nation's contribution to global ocean plastic waste at every step - from production to its entry into the environment - including by substantially reducing U.S. solid waste generation. This report also recommends a nationally-coordinated and expanded monitoring system to track plastic pollution in order to understand the scales and sources of U.S. plastic waste, set reduction and management priorities, and measure progress.

On the Web:

2020 Save Our Seas (SOS) 2.0 Act

Report: Reckoning With The U.S. Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste 2021 (Purchase Required)

Report: Reckoning with the U.S Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste (Purchase Required)

Source of News:

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
www.nationalacademies.org

Office of U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska)
www.sullivan.senate.gov

Office of U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island)
www.whitehouse.senate.gov

Office of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey)
www.menendez.senate.gov

Office of U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Oregon)
www.bonamici.house.gov

Office of U.S. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska)
www.donyoung.house.gov

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