As part of its overall efforts to combat marine litter, the IMO is participating in the Ad Hoc Open Ended Expert Group on Marine Litter and Microplastics currently underway at the UN Environment headquarters in Nairobi, from 29 to 31 May.
This group was established by the UN Environment Assembly to further examine the barriers to, and options for, combating marine plastic litter and microplastics from all sources, especially land-based sources.
The damaging build-up of plastic litter in the oceans is increasingly recognised as a major threat to the global environment, as it kills marine wildlife, destroys marine ecosystems, and enters the food web, threatening also human health.
IMO’s long track record of engagement in the fight against plastic pollution was reinforced last year, when its governing Assembly of Member States placed the issue of marine plastic litter from shipping on the agenda of its leading environmental technical body, the Marine Environment Protection Committee. IMO Member Governments have been invited to submit concrete proposals about developing an action plan on the subject to the Committee’s next meeting, in October.
Discharging plastics and other forms of litter into the sea from ships has actually been banned by an IMO regulation, legally binding on all ships, for some 30 years. The so-called MARPOL Annex V entered into force internationally in 1988 and, today, more than 150 countries have signed up to it.
In its latest session of MEPC in April (MEPC 72), IMO agreed to include a new output on its agenda, to address the issue of marine plastic from shipping in the context of 2030 SDG 14. As such, member Governments and international organizations were invited to submit concrete proposals to MEPC 73 on the development of an action plan.
Earlier this week, the European Commission proposed new EU-wide rules to target the 10 single-use plastic products most often found on Europe’s beaches and seas, as well as lost and abandoned fishing gear.
