DCW’s February column for the CIWM Journal focused on the topical subject of marine plastics. He reported back on ‘Oceans 21’, the latest Development Finance Forum organised by the German Development Bank KfW, where he led a workshop on marine litter. The conclusions were clear: the amount of plastics entering the oceans is at least an order of magnitude greater than estimates of the visible quantities in the oceans or on beaches – so the first priority is to ‘turn off the tap’. And the most effective way to do that is to extend municipal solid waste collection in developing countries to all people and to eliminate uncontrolled dumping and burning; our best judgement was that this could reduce the weight of plastics entering the oceans by 50-70%.
Recent Posts
- Learning from the past to plan for the future
- Socio-economic development drives solid waste management performance in cities
- DCW wins the 2022 ISWA Publication Award
- The untapped potential for better waste and resource management to curb global heating
- Diving Deep: deploying finance to prevent plastic pollution of the oceans