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Nations responsible for much of the world's ocean plastic pollution have promised to start cleaning up their act.

At a UN oceans summit, delegates from China, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines said they would work to keep plastics out of the seas.

Some of the promises are not yet formalised and environmentalists say the measures proposed are not nearly urgent enough.

But UN officials praised the statement.

Meeting in New York, they said it was part of a clear international shift against ocean pollution.

Eric Solheim, the UN's environment director, told BBC News: "There are quite encouraging signs, with nations taking the ocean much more seriously. Of course, there is a very long way to go because the problems are huge."

It is estimated that 5-13 million tonnes of plastics flow into the world's oceans annually. Much of it is ingested by birds and fish – and fragments of plastic have even been found in organisms at the bottom of the ocean.

A recent paper said much of the marine plastic often originates far from the sea – especially in countries which have developed consumer economies faster than their ability to manage waste.

The Helmholtz Centre in Leipzig, Germany, estimated that 75% of land-borne marine pollution comes from just 10 rivers, predominantly in Asia.

Reducing the plastic loads in these rivers by 50% would reduce global plastic inputs by 37%, it said.

'Change in attitude'

Tom Dillon from the Pew Charitable Trusts, which campaign on oceans, urged China to move quickly.

He told BBC News: "For thousands of years the Maritime Silk Road was a pathway for export of Chinese culture and influence. Will the ocean be a vehicle for export of Chinese pollution, or a new culture of conservation and sustainability?"

A report to the UN conference from the Thailand government says most marine plastic debris is land-based, caused by inefficient waste management and poor handling of plastic wastes.

In Thailand, the total amount of garbage finding its way into the sea was estimated at 2.83 million tonnes in 2016 - of which 12% was plastic.

The Thai government says the nation has established a 20-year strategy to tackle the problem, including developing financial incentives for keeping plastic out of the sea and encouraging eco-packaging design and eco-friendly substitutes for plastics.

In Indonesia, the government is starting a mass education programme for schoolchildren, and in the Philippines new laws are being developed.

Part of the challenge is finding substitutes for plastics. An international prize for smarter materials and design for packaging was launched recently by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Follow Roger on Twitter @rharrabin </s> Less than a week after President Donald Trump announced he was pulling the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, the United Nations is hosting its first ever Oceans' Conference in New York.

The aim is to find solutions to some of the toughest problems facing the oceans — that includes coral bleaching, plastic pollution, overfishing and rising sea levels.

The scourge of plastic pollution alone is a massive challenge and according to some estimates, plastic will outweigh fish by 2050 and 99 per cent of sea birds will have ingested plastic.

By the end of the week as the Oceans Conference comes to a close, the general assembly will aim to pass a call to action. </s> Researchers at The Ocean Cleanup—a Dutch foundation developing new technologies for ridding the oceans of plastic—say rivers carry an estimated 1.15-2.41 million tonnes of plastic into the sea every year, an amount that need between 48,000 to over 100,000 dump trucks to carry it away.

Their latest study, published in Nature Communications journal Wednesday, added that two-thirds of the pollution comes from the 20 most polluting rivers, the overwhelming majority in Asia with the Yangtze River in China topping the list.

The Yangtze, the world's third-longest river, "is the largest contributing catchment", dumping some 330,000 tonnes of plastic into the East China Sea.

This is followed by the Ganges River in India and a combination of the Xi, Dong and Zhujiang Rivers in China as well as four Indonesian rivers: the Brantas, Solo, Serayu and Progo.

The rest of the world shared the remaining 14 percent of plastic pollution via rivers, The Ocean Cleanup researchers said.

"Most of this river plastic input is coming from Asia, which emphasises the need to focus on monitoring and mitigation efforts in Asian countries with rapid economic development and poor waste management," they said.

The researchers however issued a disclaimer saying "there is very little data to document these assumptions and thoroughly verify the validity of our model."

"Yet, the relatively high concentrations of ocean plastic found at the surface of the North Pacific Ocean where buoyant plastics originating from Asia can accumulate, suggest that our assumptions are plausible," they said.

The study comes against the backdrop of the UN's first ocean conference opening in Miami on Monday, where plastic pollution was singled out as particularly harmful.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres cited a recent study that showed plastic could outweigh fish in 2050 if nothing is done.

Every year, more than eight million tons of plastic ends up in the ocean, costing at least $8 billion (7.1 billion euros) in damage to marine ecosystems and killing an estimated one million sea birds, 100,000 sea mammals and untold numbers of fish.

Explore further: Plastic pollution builds up in Arctic waters: study

More information: Laurent C. M. Lebreton et al. River plastic emissions to the world's oceans, Nature Communications (2017). DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15611 </s> A&W Canada announced Friday that it will ban plastic straws, saying the move will save about 82 million of the single-use products from landfills each year.

The company made the announcement to coincide with World Oceans Day, adding they will be eliminated from stores by the end of the year.

It claims to be the first major fast food restaurant chain in North America to make the move.

READ MORE: Man begins 6-month swim across Pacific Ocean — and through 1,600 km of trash

“Reducing waste from landfills is a top priority for A&W and this is one big way that we can make a difference,” Susan Senecal, CEO of A&W Canada, said in a press release.

Once plastic straws are phased out, the restaurant will use paper straws that are sustainably sourced and biodegrade within three to six months.

A&W Canada follows several other companies and governments around the world who have pledged to reduce plastic waste, and specifically eliminate straws, in the past few months.

Several independent restaurants have recently made the promise as well.

Among the companies promising to ditch plastic is IKEA, which said it plans to phase out single-use plastic products from its stores by 2020 in an attempt to reduce its carbon footprint.

READ MORE: Ikea plans to ban single-use plastic products by 2020

Last month, the European Union announced proposed plans to ban plastic products like cotton buds, straws and stir sticks.

It is expected to be a topic at the G7 summit in Quebec on Friday as well.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants the other leaders to sign on to a zero-waste plastics charter, setting international deadlines for eliminating plastic waste and committing to helping the developing world meet similar deadlines.

WATCH: Plastic straw ban? Trudeau will look to G7 leaders to take the lead

Trudeau released his own statement on Friday to mark World Oceans Day.

“This year, World Oceans Day coincides with the first day of the G7 Summit, where Canada will bring together world leaders and heads of international organizations to fight climate change and preserve the health and resilience of our oceans, coasts, and seas,” the statement read.

The Trudeau government has not made a formal commitment yet to eliminate plastic waste, but is currently asking Canadians to weigh in on the issue of plastic waste in an online discussion.

READ MORE: Canada reducing (but not banning) use of plastics at G7 in Quebec

Greenpeace Canada has been pushing for more action on the issue. The organization says the plastic pollution crisis has hit an epidemic level and Canada already produces more garbage per capita than any other developed country.

“We want Trudeau and the other G7 leaders to know that in order to get to the real heart of the problem with plastic pollution they really need to address it at the source, and one way to do that is to ban single-use plastics,” said Greenpeace Canada plastics campaigner Farrah Khan.

— With files from The Canadian Press </s> Henderson Island — an uninhabited atoll in the South Pacific, halfway between New Zealand and Chile — should be one of the most pristine places on Earth. It’s about as isolated as an island can be. But today, the UNESCO World Heritage site’s white sand beaches are coated in 38 million pieces of plastic that have bobbed across the world’s oceans — giving it the planet's highest density of anthropogenic debris and proving that the oceans are truly awash with garbage.

The garbage isn’t just an eyesore. Scientists worry it could harm marine life and even humans. Not only do animals get tangled in fishing lines and other large debris, but they ingest smaller bits of plastic as well, which then release toxic chemicals, like mercury. Predators absorb the chemicals consumed by their prey, allowing those chemicals to move up the food chain until they reach you and me. Garbage in the oceans could truly wreak havoc on your health.

But there’s a ray of hope. One ambitious foundation, which raised $31.5 million in donations in a matter of years, will attempt to clean up plastic trash in the North Pacific as early as 2018. Hundreds of other projects are attacking the problem across the world. Experts agree that it will take an army to clean up the plastic junk, but they are hopeful it will be done.

We currently live in what some scientists call the Age of Plastic. Long clear sheets of plastic are wrapped around food in your fridge. We drink out of plastic and carry our groceries in plastic. It's probably covering the screen you’re reading this story on. It has blanketed the Earth — so much so that scientists think there will be visible layers of plastic in Earth's sediment millions of years from now.

About 8 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean each year — enough to fill five plastic grocery bags for every foot of coastline in the world. The problem is so bad it’s impossible to find a pristine beach or region in the ocean, says Erik van Sebille, an oceanographer at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

“Whenever we go out somewhere to measure plastic, we are almost sure to find it,” he says.

But the problem isn't as obvious as you think. Thanks to the ocean’s currents, a significant portion of trash ends up in huge systems of rotating currents called gyres, or simply “garbage patches.” There are five main garbage patches — one each in the Indian Ocean, the North Atlantic, the North Pacific, the South Atlantic, and the South Pacific.

Related: Scientists Have Wild Ideas for Getting Rid of Space Junk

Although garbage patches have captured people’s attention, Nancy Wallace, director of the marine debris program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, says they aren’t easy to spot.

“You can sail through these ‘garbage patches’ and you wouldn’t even know you’re in it sometimes,” she says. “Because a lot of the time the plastic, or the debris, is so small, that you wouldn't see it. It’s also distributed throughout the water column or it’s on the bottom.”

Although the garbage patches don’t resemble Henderson Island, they’re still chock-full of rubbish. “We have to be absolutely ashamed as a society that we have been so careless with our waste and our plastic,” van Sebille says.

The garbage certainly haunted Boyan Slat — a young Dutch inventor who noticed the problem while diving off the coast of Greece in 2011. “I came across more plastic bags than fish,” he says. “And I then asked myself the question, ‘Well why don’t we clean this up?’”

At the time, Slat was only 16 and it took a few years until he decided that he could be a part of that “we.” He dropped out of college and founded The Ocean Cleanup foundation with the hope of cleaning the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The essential idea behind Ocean Cleanup is to use the same currents that created the garbage patch and let them push plastic into a curved network of large floating barriers. The trash would the ultimately be funneled toward a central tank where it can be collected once a month. Slat plans to deploy the project next year and thinks that the North Pacific will be garbage-free by the 2040s.

But Ocean Cleanup has been hit hard with criticism as large parts of the scientific community think it will be ineffective. “They are going at the problem from the wrong side,” van Sebille says. It makes no sense to clean up the garbage at the end of its journey, he adds, not when you can stop it earlier and prevent it from interacting with marine life.

Wallace thinks cleanup projects should target trash before it becomes a problem. “We want to focus on preventing new sources of debris rather than trying to do the open ocean cleanup because it's just more challenging,” she says. She quotes another marine biologist who “once said, 'If your bathroom is flooding because the sink is pouring out water, you don’t start mopping up the water, you turn off the faucet,’” she says. “That's a great way to look at it. We can't just keep pouring more and more in and hope that we can mop it up. We have to turn that faucet off.”

Slat, however, thinks scientists need to attack the problem from both ends — prevent garbage from ending up in the oceans, and clean up what's collecting in garbage patches.

“In a way, cleanup is prevention,” Slat says. “Because if the oceans will be polluted forever, if we have to forget what's already in there and the best thing we can do is not make it worse, I think that will be a very uninspiring message … So now that we've shown that there is a path in which we can make the ocean clean again, I think that will actually help to motivate people to work on that prevention side as well.”

But prevention will be a chore. “The really scary statistic is that in the five years we will be producing as much plastic as in all of the 20th century,” van Sebille says. “If you don't plug the holes, if you don't stop the wave getting into the ocean, the amounts we're seeing now are minuscule compared to what's coming. So we need to act fast.”

Change has already begun. A law enacted in 2015 prohibited those tiny plastic beads found in facial scrubs and body washes. Designed to exfoliate your skin, the beads easily slip through sewage treatment plants and are carried into rivers, lakes, and oceans. The law came shortly after a study estimated that 800 trillion beads were washed down the drains daily.

But it’s unlikely that we’re going to stop using plastic entirely. And van Sebille doesn’t think we have to. In fact, he says it promising that the use of plastic doesn't always come hand-in-hand with litter.

“I am hopeful that it's not like carbon dioxide, where the carbon dioxide that we emit is an inherent part of the burning of fossil fuels,” he says. “Here, the use of plastics doesn't mean it has to end up in the ocean.”

Instead of halting the production of plastic, experts argue we need to target areas where the problem is easiest to tackle. And that varies throughout the world. Take the U.S. and China. Although America generates nearly twice as much waste per person per day as China does, China tops the list of plastic polluters. That’s because the U.S. has the proper infrastructure to get rid of waste, whereas in rural China, it's rare to have a system for trash collection.

Many projects in China are trying to develop the proper infrastructure from the ground up.

“You have to look at the local challenges and culture and then develop the solutions around that and make the economic incentives work in each place,” Wallace says.

You have to look at where plastic causes the most harm, van Sebille argues. Out in the north Pacific, trash does little harm because there’s little marine life. But closer to the coasts, where animals live, trash can cause an array of dangers. Many scientists argue this is the best place to clean up.

Plenty of other cleanup projects target the coasts. Van Sebille points toward hundreds of small community groups that clean up their local beaches. Some U.S. cities have deployed trash collection boats into rivers that scoop up plastic before it can reach the ocean.

At the end of the day, every project counts.

“We’re seeing real investment from other countries that were not involved in the issue before,” Wallace says. Take Indonesia. Those volcanic islands are the second largest contributor to ocean garbage after China. Now, the country has started pilot projects that will help develop the infrastructure necessary to clean up trash.

“We need it all because we are facing this tsunami of new plastic,” van Sebille says. And although that might seem like a colossal problem, many experts are optimistic.

“We caused the problem," she says. "Therefore, we can solve the problem." </s> Researchers at The Ocean Cleanup, the Dutch foundation developing advanced technologies to rid the oceans of plastic, today published the first-ever estimate of plastic emissions from rivers into the world’s oceans. Writing in Nature Communications, they calculate that rivers annually transport between 1.15 and 2.41 million metric tons of plastic waste into our oceans. Two-thirds of this input comes from the 20 most polluting rivers, most of which are located on the Asian continent.

The distribution of plastic in the oceans can only be mapped if the main sources of plastic pollution are known. By pinpointing these sources, The Ocean Cleanup can target the best possible locations in the ocean for the deployment of its cleanup systems. Additionally, knowledge about the sources of plastic pollution can aid prevention efforts.

It is commonly accepted that most plastic found in the oceans originates from land-based sources. It is also well known that rivers play a particularly important role in transporting mismanaged plastic waste from land into the ocean. Until now, however, researchers had quantified neither the total amount of plastic flowing out of the world’s rivers, nor how much plastic is emitted by each individual river. With today’s study, this information is now available.

For this study, a team lead by The Ocean Cleanup researcher Laurent Lebreton created a model from the combined global geospatial information on: population density, waste management, topography, hydrography and the locations of dams. After calibrating the model against field measurements of plastic flows from various rivers across the world, it was used to obtain a global picture of the annual river plastic emissions into the oceans.

Of the 40,760 ocean-bound rivers studied, just 20 are responsible for two-thirds of the global plastic input. In total, between 1.15 and 2.41 million metric tons of plastic are deposited into the oceans by rivers. The model also shows that plastic input from rivers is highly correlated with drainage of debris from the river banks and creeks leading into main waterways, and that this river-to-ocean input therefore varies per season. Worldwide, three quarters of the plastic released annually enters the oceans between May and October.

Boyan Slat, Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup stated: “We’re pleased to see how many initiatives have been taken in the past few years to raise awareness of the ocean pollution problem. However, for our work in the deep ocean to succeed in the long run, it’s crucial that governments and other organizations speed up their efforts to mitigate the sources of the problem we aim to resolve. The results of this latest study can assist with those efforts.” </s> WELLINGTON, New Zealand, August 11, 2018 (ENS) – New Zealand will phase out single-use plastic shopping bags over the next year, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage announced Friday.

“We’re phasing-out single-use plastic bags so we can better look after our environment and safeguard New Zealand’s clean, green reputation,” said Prime Minister Ardern.

“We’re listening to New Zealanders who want us to take action on this problem. This year 65,000 Kiwis signed a petition calling for an outright ban. It’s also the biggest single subject school children write to me about,” she said.

“Every year in New Zealand we use hundreds of millions of single-use plastic bags – a mountain of bags, many of which end up polluting our precious coastal and marine environments and cause serious harm to all kinds of marine life,” said the Prime Minister, “and all of this when there are viable alternatives for consumers and business.”

People have until Friday, September 14 to share their views on the new policy. The government wants to know what the public thinks is the best date for the phase-out to be completed, what bags should be included, any retailers that should be exempted, and how best to help people with the transition.

“We are a Government determined to face up to New Zealand’s environmental challenges. Just like climate change, we’re taking meaningful steps to reduce plastics pollution so we don’t pass this problem to future generations,” said Prime Minister Ardern.

“We need to be far smarter in the way we manage waste and this is a good start,” she said.

The seas around New Zealand are the riskiest in the world for seabirds eating plastic rubbish, the nonprofit organization Forest & Bird has warned Members of Parliament’s Environment Committee.

Forest & Bird spokesperson Karen Baird says, “Rubbish that ends up in our seas has a far worse effect on seabird species than anywhere else in the world.”

“Even though we don’t have the most plastic pollution, we are unique in the world in having so many seabirds species in New Zealand. We also have the most threatened seabird species, many of which are found nowhere else in the world,” she said.

New Zealand’s seabirds are not the only animals at risk from eating plastic pollution. Baird says, “One out of every three turtles recovered in New Zealand has died or is sick from eating plastic.”

Associate Environment Minister Sage says many countries and major cities around the world have successfully taken action on plastic pollution in recent years and expressed confidence that New Zealanders would also embrace the change.

“Public calls for action have encouraged a significant number of retailers, including supermarkets, to move on single-use plastic bags. We want to support their efforts by ensuring the retail industry moves together in a fair and effective way,” said Sage.

“The government will work alongside supermarkets and other retailers to help people make the change to reusable bags and we want to hear from New Zealanders as to how we can best do this,” she said.

“New Zealanders are proud of our country’s clean, green reputation and we want to help ensure we live up to it. Phasing out single-use plastic bags helps do that,” said Sage. “We’re proposing a six month phase-out period and we’re confident this is a change we can make together.” </s> SA’s oceans are getting a clean sweep. This is according to Plastics SA who launched its Operation Clean Sweep campaign on World Oceans Day‚ at uShaka Marine World in Durban on Thursday.

The goal of the campaign is to contain the loss of plastic pellets‚ flakes and powder used by the plastics industry.

Plastics SA’s director of sustainability Douw Steyn said it is about time the plastics industry takes a look at itself and the role it plays in contaminating the oceans and threatening marine life.

"We, as the plastic industry, make the pellets and flakes used in the manufacturing of plastic bags‚ bottles, and so on. The pellets are smaller than a sunflower seed but create huge damage to the ocean," Steyn said.

"When these micro-plastics spill onto the floor during manufacturing, they are swept down a drain‚ into a sewer and from there into rivers and ultimately the sea. Plastic bags are easy to spot and pick up; plastic pellets are not. They are ingested by turtles‚ birds and marine life and cause a great deal of damage."

Judy Mann Lang‚ CEO of the South African Association for Marine Biological Research‚ said that research suggests there is more than 250,000 tonnes of plastic in the seas and that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish. "But we need to maintain hope‚" she said‚ "which is why we are celebrating World Oceans Day globally — 600 events will take place today to celebrate the world’s oceans."

Mark Liptrot‚ sustainability manager at packaging company Constantia Afripack, said the effect of plastics on our oceans is a growing problem. "Micro-plastics repel water and attract chemical pollutants, such as pesticides and toxins. These poisons are ingested by small marine life which, in turn, is eaten by bigger marine animals. We haven’t begun to understand the extent of this problem."

Steyn said Plastics SA hopes that all those involved in plastic manufacturing will take a voluntary pledge to partner in Operation Clean Sweep. "We are talking about 20-plus raw material suppliers, such as Sasol; 1,800 companies making plastic products; and about 230 recycling companies. Together, the industry employs more than 60 000 people. This is a global campaign and it’s time for our members to come on board."

Plastics SA has spent the last two years creating South African-specific training material for use on the shop floor. "It has to be practical‚ it must be measurable. At the next global plastics alliance meeting in December, in Indonesia, we will have to give feedback on our progress."

Plastics SA will publicise the campaign through its allied plastic associations‚ its magazine and regular, provincial tours.

Steyn is optimistic: "I believe the industry has a responsibility to clean up and if we are committed we can ensure a cleaner environment. Plastic just doesn’t belong in the oceans." </s> Ever since Blue Planet 2, ocean plastic pollution has become one of the most talked about topics. And for a good reason: According to Greenpeace, 12.7 tonnes of plastic end up in our ocean every year, harming marine life and humans alike. Experts forecast that by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the sea.

As packaging design specialists, CuCo are aware of the impact that plastic has on our oceans and we encourage our clients to move away from plastic packaging whenever possible.

Brands and large organisations in particular can heavily influence the reduction of plastic waste by raising awareness of the issue and cutting down their own waste. And some brands have come up with some great ideas to save the ocean and encourage change:

To raise awareness of the ocean plastic issue, Fairy launched its washing-up liquid in a bottle made entirely from post-consumer recycled plastic, including 10% ocean plastic. The project aims to educate consumers about ocean plastic pollution and the importance of recycling.

Another giant brand who have integrated sustainability into their marketing plan is Adidas. Last year, Adidas launched three new trainer editions – all made from ocean plastic! Each pair is made from eleven reused plastic bottles and the sportswear brand has managed to sell more than one million of these trainers in 2017. This year, Adidas also launched a yoga collection made from recycled ocean plastic. The project emphasises on the importance of recycling and the negative consequences of ocean plastic pollution and is a great step in the right direction!

We all love a cold can of beer at the beach on a hot summer day. However, the plastic six-pack rings that hold the cans together are incredibly dangerous for marine wildlife if they end up in the ocean. According to official statistics, millions of animals have died as a direct result of plastic six-packs after becoming trapped in the rings, resulting in strangulation and starvation.

Aware of this issue, a small brewery in Florida released an edible and biodegradable six-pack holder in order to save marine life and cut down the amount of plastic waste in the ocean. The 100% plastic free six-pack ring is made from beer byproducts and is safe for animals to eat – what a great innovation!

In May last year, pictures of a “dead whale” stranded on a beach in the Philippines with a mouth full of plastic waste went viral and shocked people all over the world. However, what people had mistaken for a real whale was actually part of Greenpeace’s plastic waste campaign. In collaboration with a Philippine-based creative agency, Greenpeace built a giant ‘whale’ made of plastic waste found in the ocean to raise awareness of the fatal effects of dumping rubbish. The campaign was a wake-up call for many consumers and has won multiple awards. Well done Greenpeace!

5. Surfrider Foundation – What goes in the Ocean goes in you

Through the use of powerful imagery, the Surfrider Foundation is working hard to encourage people to reduce their plastic waste with the message that ocean plastic not only harms marine wildlife but also affects human health. Plastic in the ocean is easily mistaken for food by marine animals and more than a quarter of fish were reported to have ingested plastic in 2008 – so what was once our packaging, may be soon our meal! The ad was part of Surfrider’s rise above plastic program to increase awareness of how everyone can reduce their plastic footprint. A highly effective campaign!

If you’re looking for sustainable packaging solutions for your product or brand, contact CuCo today on 01202 911959 or email us at hello@cucocreative.co.uk – We’d love to help!
At a United Nations-Oceans summit, delegates from China, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, four of the top polluters of plastic into the oceans, pledge to reduce their levels of oceanic plastic pollution.