Marine Plastics
The issue of marine plastics has raised the profile and level of attention to the marine environment to a point never seen before in the context of the protection of the marine environment. It raises a number of difficult and unresolved questions which result in an unparalleled number of complementary and competing efforts, initiatives and programmes from international and regional organisations, governments, the private sector and the public.
CIL follows closely developments in the global legal and institutional framework applicable for the management of this global issue with a particular focus on their impact and implementation in Southeast Asia. The region is one of the main contributors to the amount of marine plastics that are found in the environment globally. In a 2010 estimate, six ASEAN member states are listed in the top 20 countries that mismanages their waste, resulting in plastic leakage into the oceans. Together with China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam may be ‘responsible’ for more than half of the plastics entering the oceans, bearing in mind that much of this waste also originates from developed countries.
St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory, the Tropical Marine Science Institute, with the financial support of the Government of the United Kingdom and with the support of the Advisory Committee on Protection of the Sea (ACOPS) who participates as an observer to working groups on marine plastics at the Marine Environment Protection Committee of the International Maritime Organisation and at the Conference of the Parties to the London Convention and Protocol.