The Group of Twenty (G20), composed of the most important industrial and emerging countries, has agreed on an action plan against marine garbage, especially plastic, at a conference from May 30 to June 1 in Bremen under German aegis. The plan primarily addresses avoidance strategies and also recycling and waste management systems.
According to a current study, 5 to 13 Million tons of garbage are inserted into the oceans every year, especially through inadequate waste management an littering, that is the careless dumping of garbage into the environment. By now, negative effects from ocean garbage have been proven for more than 800 species of marine life.
The German North and Baltic Sea are also affected by this. For example, microplastics are found in 69 percent of the examined samples from fishes that live on sea-bottom level in North and Baltic Sea (examined species were herring, sprat, flounder, dab and plaice).
“Marine garbage is a result of our current throwaway society and is attributable to the predominant patterns of production and consumption”, as the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) emphasises.
Source: The Bremen Cotton Report 23/24 – 2017
Link to: German Environment Agency: German seas also suffer from plastic waste
