Regional action plans envisaged for European seas
Federal Environment Minister Peter Altmaier has called for increased action to combat marine litter today. At the closing event of an international expert conference on marine litter in Berlin, the Federal Environment Minister stated: "Garbage patches of unimaginable dimensions on our oceans are clear proof of the fact that up until now we have not taken this threat seriously enough. Marine litter is a pressing global problem in international marine conservation that deserves our full attention."
Every year about 6.4 million tonnes of plastic waste end up in the sea. Statistically, each square kilometre of sea contains roughly 13,000 plastic particles floating on the surface. In order for the seas in Germany and the EU to reach a "good environmental status" by 2020, we must first and foremost prevent further waste from being dumped into our seas.
The goal of the conference was to kick off the development of regional action plans for Europe's marine regions for the prevention of further waste discharges into the sea. Other important issues are the improvement of waste management systems and the introduction of separate collection and recycling, as 80 percent of marine waste does not originate on ships, but on land.
Participation in the three-day conference, which was organised by the Federal Environment Ministry, the Federal Environment Agency and the European Commission, included about 200 international experts from administration, science and environmental and industrial associations.