During this week’s World Resources Forum 2019, which took place from 24 – 27 February in Antwerp, the FSLCI organized a workshop jointly together with IUCN on Marine Litter.
The interactive workshop, which was organized under the heading “Plastic for Lunch – How to Best Address the Issue of Marine Litter?” built on both organizations’ work in the field of marine litter.
Around 30 stakeholders with various backgrounds attend the workshop which started with short input presentations by Guido Sonnemann (University Bordeaux), Joao Sousa (IUCN) and Sonia Valdivia (WRF). Following these inputs participants discussed key questions around marine litter in four working groups from a policy making, manufacturing, consumers behavior and waste management perspective. Participants concluded that in order to address marine litter, we need to:
- Mobilize significantly more public and private (EPR) capital for global waste management infrastructure
- Implement policies and subsequent legislation that aims at reducing the use of single-use plastics, fosters resource efficiency and take-back schemes, and
- Enhance the education of all stakeholders involved with a focus on consumers and the young generation so as to increase public pressure on decision makers in business and governments.
Participants also discussed and highlighted the relevance of assessing alternative solutions from a life cycle perspective in order to avoid any unintended consequences by replacing e.g. plastics with other materials.
