Resources

Join the next MOOC on Marine Litter! This free, online course was developed by UNEP and the Open Universiteit of the Netherlands, as a key activity of the Global Partnership on Marine Litter (GPML). The MOOC has been created to stimulate leadership and offers opportunities for actionable and change oriented learning, related to marine litter and microplastics. The course is now available in 10…

Summary of IMO work on addressing marine plastic litter from ships.

Valuing Plastic: The Business Case for Measuring, Managing and Disclosing Plastic Use in the Consumer Goods Industry is a highly informative publication on the valuation of plastic that allows us, for the first time, to put a figure on the costs companies would incur if the damage caused by waste plastic was included in their accounting. The report highlights the urgent need for businesses to…

United Nations Sustainable Fisheries Resolution - A/RES/74/18 - Sustainable fisheries, including through the 1995 Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, and related instruments (2019):https://undocs.org/en…

The Training of Trainers on Monitoring and Assessment of Marine Plastic Litter and Microplastics is a joint project between The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Global Programme of Action (GPA), the Global Partnership on Marine Litter (GPML), the Open University of the Netherlands and relevant partners in the regions.

The training addresses the need for quality data and…

Plastic is an increasingly high-profile threat to our climate, ocean, wildlife and human health. Its production has increased twenty times since 19641 and almost half of plastic produced is used just once before it is discarded.2 The mountains of plastic waste generated by people, businesses, food production and almost every other sector of modern life are, on the whole, poorly collected and…

This document is a compilation of the following four United Nations Environment Assembly resolutions on marine litter and microplastics.

Parties are invited to submit relevant information on the implementation of Resolution 12.20 Management of Marine Debris as part of their responses to the requests made by the United Nations Environment Programme in relation to UNEA Resolution 4/6 and  encourage further research by academia, research organizations and other relevant stakeholders on the impact of plastic pollution, including…

Marine litter is a transboundary challenge that is rooted in unsustainable production and consumption patterns, poor solid waste management and lack of infrastructure, lack of adequate legal and policy frameworks and poor enforcement, including on interregional cross-border trade of plastic waste, and a lack of financial resources. Marine litter is any persistent, manufactured or processed…

This report is a first step to address the environmental and human health risks associated with plastic litter and microplastics in the marine environment, from a biological, physical and chemical perspective. It provides a state-of-the-art overview of risks and exposure pathways due to plastics and microplastics, including particles in the nano size range, and an overview of existing or…

Following a request to AQASS Ltd by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), this report investigates the practice of disposal and recycling of fibre reinforced plastic / polymer (FRP) vessels and related environmental issues; N.B. for this report FRP is used but the material is also known as GRP (glass reinforced plastic) and fibreglass (a trading name), amongst others.

Through a recent report, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) identified hull scrapings, marine coatings and anti-fouling systems as potential sources of microplastics to the oceans. The impacts of marine plastics and microplastics upon species and communities are increasingly recognised with concomitant regulation and public attention. Accordingly, through its mandate…

United Nations Environment Assembly resolution 3/7 on marine litter and microplastics and, in particular, the invitation to relevant international and regional organizations and conventions, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, as appropriate and within their mandates, to increase their actions to prevent and reduce marine litter and microplastics and their harmful effects, and…

Recalling the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Developmentand its Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goal14

In Para 50 of that report, the JWG recommended that: a) FAO, in collaboration with IMO and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), including the provision of technical advice into the Global Partnership on Marine Litter (GPML), develop international guidelines on the marking of fishing gear, taking into account MARPOL Annex V and related guidelines, and other instruments, where…

Reaffirming that the moratorium on commercial whaling, which has been in effect since 1986, has contributed to the recovery of some cetacean populations, and AWARE of the cumulative effects of multiple, existing and emerging threats to cetacean populations such as entanglement, by catch, underwater noise, ship strikes, marine debris and climate change

These Voluntary Guidelines for the Marking of Fishing Gear are dedicated to the memory of  Joanna Toole, who worked tirelessly to reduce and manage abandoned, lost, or otherwise  discarded  fishing  gear  (ALDFG)  in  the  ocean  and  to  stop  ghost  fishing  by  such  gear  worldwide.

This is the final version of the report as approved by the Thirty-third Session of the Committee on Fisheries, held in Rome from 9 to 13 July 2018.

Report on possible options available under the Basel Convention to further address marine plastic litter and microplastics, Activities related to marine plastic litter and microplastics undertaken by the Basel Convention regional and coordinating centres and the Stockholm Convention regional and subregional centres.

All other garbage including plastics, synthetic ropes, fishing gear, plastic garbage bags, incinerator ashes, clinkers, cooking oil, floating dunnage, lining and packing materials, paper, rags, glass, metal, bottles, crockery and similar refuse