Wilhelmsen Ship Management (WSM) conducted a meeting gathering major stakeholders of the maritime sector, discussing, sharing knowledge and expertise on how to reduce marine pollution of all kinds, mostly focusing on land-based activities.
The meeting focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life below water.
To deal with plastic waste, WSM have enforced a new criteria in their vendor selection process earlier this year. Vendors supplying spare parts, stores and consumables will be required to demonstrate a viable plan to reduce plastic usage on the products delivered onboard WSM’s managed fleet.
During the meeting, the participants focused on plastic packaging that is delivered onboard vessels, such as means of disposal and recycling plastic waste.
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Also, the panel discussed the importance of creating alliances in the industry to share best practices, standardization of metrics for measuring plastics, establishment of industry standards by authorities and audit trails of plastic consumption.
For the time being, plastic waste keeps increasing in the sea, as a study published in Nature Communications revealed that the increase in large plastic pollution has been happening since 1957, with a significant increase since the 1990s.