Ocean Plastics: Time for A New Convention?
…about 90 percent of all the plastic that reaches the world’s oceans gets flushed through just 10 rivers: The Yangtze, the Indus, Yellow River, Hai River, the Nile, the Ganges, Pearl River, Amur River, the Niger, and the Mekong (in that order). — DW.com November 30, 2017
Researchers estimate five (maybe over ten) million metric tons of plastic flow into the world’s oceans each year. Many call for a new international convention to reduce ocean plastic pollution. An ocean plastics case fits the proposed Stoa topic: Resolved: One or more international conventions on environmental issues should be substantially reformed.
On proposed international conventions governing ocean plastics see, for example, Strengthening plastic governance: Towards a new global convention (adelphi, 2017), Good initiatives exist but more action needed to tackle marine plastics (IUCN, November 2017), and Opinion: Why we need an international agreement on marine plastic pollution (National Academy of Sciences, 2016):
Despite the ubiquity, persistence, and cross-boundary nature of plastic pollution, stemming it is not an insurmountable task. Motivation for addressing the issue is building at the international level. The time is ripe for the initiation of an international agreement with measurable reduction targets to lessen the plastic pollution in the world’s oceans.
Alternatives to a new convention include reforming one or more current conventions. A Sea of Debris: Oceans Governance and the Challenge of Plastic Pollution, (Hague Institute for Global Justice, April 21, 2016), argues international law under current agreements offers some grounds for addressing ocean plastic pollution:
As for the international law dealing with the oceans in general, and with marine pollution in particular, the existing framework has potential, but is currently limited in its applicability. Main agreements include the London Dumping Convention and the MARPOL Convention, both of which deal with marine pollution and ocean dumping, and the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS). These treaties are mostly concerned with prohibiting vessel-sourced waste to enter the oceans, and only few articles explicitly refer to land-based pollution.
Current international conventions have problems reducing ocean plastics and would require reform:
Furthermore, even though the conventions impose duties and obligations on the parties, they also leave considerable opportunity for states to abdicate from this responsibility. For instance, states decide themselves what measures they can take in order to prevent pollution of the marine environment.
The article notes that monitoring is a challenge due in part to the diverse sources of ocean plastics:
The problem insufficient enforcement and monitoring mechanisms persists as a hindrance for compliance and subsequent improvement of the marine littering problem. The complexity of the marine debris issue – where it is coming from, whom it affects, and what its direct implications are, makes for a complicated case of domestic and international management.
Skeptics of approving a new oceans plastics convention can point to problems with other environmental conventions, or could focus on poverty as the core problem since studies show 90% of ocean plastics flow from just 10 rivers in in poor countries. See: Almost all plastic in the ocean comes from just 10 rivers (DW.com November 30, 2017, quoted above). See also Stemming the Plastic Tide: 10 Rivers Contribute Most of the Plastic in the Oceans (Scientific American, February 1, 2018)
Also, researchers can find only 10% of the ocean plastic they expected and many believe ocean microbes have adapted to consume plastic. See Newly-evolved microbes may be breaking down ocean plastics (New Scientist, May 25, 2017) and Scientists stumbled upon a plastic-eating bacterium—then accidentally made it stronger (Popular Science, April 17, 2018). Microbes could be consuming some or much of oceans plastics, or it could be sinking to ocean floors (weighed down by microbes, or maybe fish are consuming most of ocean plastic, and scientists speculate in this 2014 Science article, Ninety-nine percent of the ocean’s plastic is missing (June 30, 2014).
Most ocean plastics flow from very poor countries. Relevant to both the foreign aid and international environmental convention resolutions is: Plastic crisis: divert foreign aid to dumpsites in developing countries (The Conversation, April 6, 2018):
A recent report by the Chartered Institute of Waste Managers and the UK-based NGO WasteAid claims that mismanaged waste from developing countries accounts for up to 70% of ocean plastic by weight. Just five countries in East Asia are responsible for most of this. Meanwhile 38 out of 50 of the world’s largest uncontrolled dump sites are in coastal areas and many of them spill waste directly into the sea.
Students researching this resolution will find strong connections between economic freedom reforms, economic growth, and major reductions in air and water pollution. The World Bank Brief, Reducing Pollution (April 5, 2018) provides background and a section on water pollution (though focused on wastewater projects rather that plastics).
For ideas on local efforts to measure and reduce plastic pollution, see Life in the Plasticene (PERC, Summer, 2016):
Those who have participated in beach clean-ups are acutely aware of the pervasiveness of plastics. Frustrated by floating plastic debris, a group of surfers, swimmers, and marine conservationists came up with a plan to crowdsource pollution data and identify hot spots. Launched in April, the Global Ocean Alert System geotags floating debris, maps pollution, and helps prioritize clean ups.
The idea is for plastic recyclers to use the data to determine profitable locations to drop booms in waterways and harvest plastic before it makes its way to sea. …
Owning Oceans and Rivers is Complicated…
Economists see pollution as an institutional problem when ownership or community access rules don’t exist or aren’t enforced. In neighborhoods, if property is or seems unowned, before too long someone leaves trash on it. The local garbage dump charges to take old furniture and other junk, but open land and local forests don’t. The extreme view on this is presented by economist Walter Block in his 1973 Reason article The Litterer as Hero:
And it is not just a case of most littering in public places and some littering in private places. It is definitional. If something resembling littering in all aspects were to occur in a private place, it could not be littering. It would be called something else. When large crowds leave a ballpark, movie, theatre, concert, circus or whatever, what remains among the seats and aisles is not and cannot be Utter. It is garbage, or dirt, or wastes, or remains or whatever else we want to call it. But not litter.
Most of the world’s oceans are government managed or entirely unowned. Beyond the 12-mile territorial sea and the 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), oceans are unclaimed. So no surprise that litter accumulates in the oceans.
Perhaps an international convention on floating ocean cities could help reduce ocean plastics. Seasteading’s Joe Quirk explains Can Man-Made Floating Cities Save the Ocean?
The solution to restore our abused oceans may be counterintuitive. A diverse international community of marine biologists, nautical engineers, aquaculture farmers, maritime attorneys, security personnel, investors, environmentalists, and artists has initiated the seasteading movement, a campaign to homestead the high seas by building buoyant cities that float on the ocean.
The Sea of Debris article at the beginning of this post offers a range of proposals including more education:
Education represents another essential part in reaching a solution to the marine litter problem. The lack of public awareness about the consequences of unsustainable mass consumption practices and of how individual choices affect the environment is problematic. An example of an organization that actively emphasizes the engagement of the public is the research organization Algalita, which particularly focuses on environmental education of the youth.
Unfortunately the education programs proposed don’t seem to include economic education. Again, economists argue that institutional incentives are key to both prosperity and reducing pollution. Nearly all of today’s ocean pollution comes from rivers in poor countries. Institutional reforms that allow enterprises and trade to expand will lift wages and increased prosperity will in turn improve air and water quality, including reducing river and ocean plastic dumping.