Global Review of Plastics Pollution: Managing Marine Litter

When
November 11, 2019 11:00 am — 12:30 pm
Where
Washington, DC (and webinar)

An ELI 50th Anniversary Seminar

Marine litter is human-created waste that has been discharged into the marine environment, including glass, metal, plastics, and other debris. According to data compiled by the United Nations, the equivalent of a garbage truck filled with plastic is dumped into the ocean every minute – that’s more than 8 million metric tons per year. While progress is being made to manage marine litter through enacting laws governing the production and use of land-based materials that cause marine litter and cleanups, challenges persist including supervising waste disposal into the marine environment and establishing overarching marine litter legislation.

How do agencies work together to establish national and international regulations for assessing and removing marine litter? What are the root causes of ocean debris pollution, and how are these root causes of pollution being confronted? How can stakeholders become more involved in marine litter prevention and management? Panelists engaged in these questions and more as they explored recent U.S. legislation to target marine litter, the economic impacts of marine litter, and examples of successful international marine pollution agreements and regulatory collaborations.

Panelists:
Carl Bruch
, Director, International Programs, Senior Attorney, Environmental Law Institute, Moderator
Carole Excell, Acting Director, Environmental Democracy Practice, World Resources Institute (WRI)
K. Russell LaMotte, Managing Principal, Beveridge & Diamond PC
Adena Leibman, Natural Resources Counsel and Appropriations Manager, Office of U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (RI)

Materials:
ELI members will have access to materials/a recording of this session (usually posted w/in 48 hours). If you are not an ELI member but would like to have access to archived sessions like this one, go HERE to see the many benefits of membership and how to join.