Strengthen the Global Science and Knowledge Base to Reduce Marine Plastic Pollution

Scientists, policymakers and stakeholders voiced requests for strengthening and improving the knowledge base on marine plastic pollution. These requests often include demands for a scientific advisory mechanism or body that operates as two-way interface between science and policy and that informs policy- and decision-making in the global combat against plastic waste in the oceans. Against this background, this report makes the case for a global scientific mechanism on marine plastic pollution and discusses the conditions to make it work effectively.

Protecting Oceans from plastic pollution by strengthening the knowledge base

Obviously, the knowledge base on marine plastic pollution needs to be strengthened. This is not only a widespread political demand of an increasing number of actors, including states, civil society and science. It is also necessary against the background of what is known about marine plastic pollution and what is not or hardly known.

Key findings of existing knowledge assessment

What is known:

• Plastics occur everywhere in the oceans: at the surface, in the water column, in seabed sediments, at coasts and in biota. They occur in and across many organisms, habitats and trophic levels and consequently in seafood.
• All steps in the life cycle of plastic products - from producers to waste management - contribute to the occurrence of plastics in the oceans.
• Most entry pathways of plastics into the oceans are well-known.
• Widespread occurrence of plastics in the oceans has adverse effects on marine environment, threatening both individual marine species and entire habitats, ultimately resulting in a threat to marine biodiversity
• Marine plastic pollution has significant negative social and economic impacts, including costs of environmental damage and remediation.
• Addressing marine plastic pollution requires a life-cycle approach.

Where more research is needed:

• (More) exact quantification of the amount of plastics in the marine environment, including their spatial and temporal distribution
• Assessment of occurrence in air, soil and freshwater compartments
• Standardisation and harmonisation of assessment and monitoring methodologies
• (More) exact quantification of the contribution of the different sources to the pollution of the marine environment with plastics, including the share of different sources
• Standardisation and harmonisation of assessment and monitoring methodologies
• Knowledge on how and to what extent the various pathways transport plastics into the oceans
• Standardisation and harmonisation of assessment and monitoring methodologies
• Knowledge on how plastics affect the marine environment 
• Foundations and conduct of risk assessments
• Analysis of effects on higher level of organisms or entire ecosystems

To be clear, the existing knowledge undoubtedly warrants political action at all governance levels to reduce marine plastic pollution. Yet, there is an urgent need to learn more about promising levers and entry points for effective political and technical interventions across the entire of life-cycle of plastics.