Roadmap for reducing Ocean Waste

Ocean protection is at the forefront of the international agenda with the adoption of Sustainable Development Goal 14, where the first target is directed at reducing marine pollution, including plastic marine debris. To contribute to this goal we are setting up a global plastic value chain platform to address short- and medium-term solutions across the entire plastic product lifecycle. Other initiatives address the entire lifecycle in the long-term or focus on the short and medium term end-of-life of plastics.

The Challenge

Without meaningful interventions, the world’s oceans will contain roughly one ton of plastic for every three tons of fish by 2025. While there aren't precise estimates, the most widely quoted figures show that at least 80% of ocean plastic comes from land-based sources.

The Business Case

Each player along the plastic value chain has a key strategic interest in investing in business solutions to reduce ocean waste. Business drivers include the loss of core business, regulatory risks, reputational risks and innovation potential.

The Business Solution

Our business solution aims to establish a Roadmap for reducing Ocean Waste (ROW) so that business can take an active role in addressing marine debris through on-land solutions:

Members will develop a clear business case for companies to invest in on-land solutions addressing the prevention of plastic marine debris (deliverable 1).
This will lay the foundation for developing a business toolkit for companies—a living catalogue of existing on-land solutions along the plastics value chain (deliverable 2).
The applicability of the toolkit solutions to targeted geographies will enable business recommendations to be developed for policy-makers (deliverable 3) and help select a city for a pilot project (deliverable 4).