The McKinsey Center for Business and Environment recently collaborated on a report with the Ocean Conservancy called Stemming the Tide: Land-based Strategies for a Plastic Free Ocean.
The report identified the origins of the world’s plastic marine debris and how it leaks into the oceans.
The research found that more than 80 percent of ocean plastic somes from land-based sources rather than from perceived sources such as fisheries and fishing vessels. Furthermore, of that 80 percent, three quarters comes from uncollected waste.
The report by McKinsey highlights six recommendations to help decrease marine litter entering our oceans:
•Obtaining real and meaningful commitments from national governments, governors, and mayors to set and achieve ambitious waste-management targets.
•Providing local “proofs of concept” for integrated waste-management approaches in a number of carefully selected pilot cities.
•Building a best-practice transfer mechanism of global expertise to high-priority cities.
•Ensuring required project-investment conditions are in place.
•Facilitating technology implementation by equipping technology providers with detailed data.
•Bringing leadership and a strategic focus on solutions as part of the global policy agenda on the ocean.
Click here to download a copy of the full report.
Published in the February 2016 Edition of American Recycler News
