The United States of America

Specific Measures:

• • Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program
• • Safer Choice and Design for the Environment voluntary certification programs
• • National Recycling Strategy: Part One of a Series on Building a Circular Economy for All
• • Save Our Seas 2.0, Title 3, Section 301, National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution: Part Three of a Series on Building a Circular Economy for All

Brief description:

• • Through its Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program, EPA uses federal purchasing power to help catalyze the supply of and demand for sustainable products and services. The program manages the Recommendations of Specifications, Standards and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing, which leverages private sector environmental performance standards and ecolabels to achieve several environmental priorities of the administration., including plastics reduction. The recommended standards and ecolabels are required to be used within all applicable federal procurement activities to the maximum extent practicable. Standards and ecolabels included in the Recommendations often contain criteria to promote plastic waste reduction in both products and packaging, and the environmental and human health benefits are realized through the procurement of these products.
• • EPA also developed the Safer Choice and the Design for the Environment (DfE) voluntary certification programs to make it easier for people to find products that meet EPA’s rigorous health and environmental criteria. Certified products must also meet product performance standards and the newly updated sustainable packaging measures, which require all certified products to use post-consumer recycled content and be recyclable or reusable. It is through these packaging requirements that the Safer Choice and DfE programs help reduce plastic waste.
• • National Recycling Strategy: Part One of a Series on Building a Circular Economy for All–The National Recycling Strategy was published in November 2021 and identifies strategic objectives and actions needed to create a stronger, more resilient, and cost-effective U.S. municipal solid waste recycling system. Recycling has been a critical component of the EPA’s decades-long efforts to implement the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and its more recent efforts to pursue a Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) approach, which aims to reduce the environmental impacts of materials across their lifecycle. Building on the National Framework for Advancing the U.S. Recycling System and EPA’s long history of providing data, tools, information and other resources to support recycling in the United States. The strategy aligns with and supports implementation of the National Recycling Goal - to increase the recycling rate to 50 percent by 2030.

In Preparation:

• • EPA is developing the National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution: Part Three of a Series on Building a Circular Economy for All, which provides actions needed in the United States to reduce the amount of plastic waste entering waterways and oceans. The strategy identifies strategic objectives and voluntary actions that all U.S. stakeholders can implement to reduce, reuse, collect, and capture plastic waste.

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Specific Measures:
■ Others: procurement of reusable, compostable or recyclable food service ware
Brief description:
• On July, 19, 2024, the Biden-Harris Administration released the Mobilizing Federal Action on Plastic Pollution: Progress, Principles, and Priorities, the first comprehensive, government-wide strategy to target plastic pollution across the plastic lifeycle, including production, processing, use, and disposal. The report highlights focus areas and opportunities for federal action to reduce plastic pollution during plastic production, by innovating materials and product design, decreasing plastic waste generation, improving environmentally sound waste management, and informing and conducting plastic pollution capture and removal.

In Preparation:
• EPA’s Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program is considering expanding the Recommendations of Specifications, Standards, and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing in the food service ware category. This would cover reusable food service ware in addition to compostable or recyclable. U.S. federal purchasers would be required to utilize any standards and ecolabels to the maximum extent practicable once they are added to the Recommendations.

Specific Measures:

• • Microbead-Free Waters Act
• • Report on Microfiber Pollution

Targeted Products
■ Cosmetics and Personal Care Products
Brief description:

• • The Microbead-Free Waters Act prohibits the manufacturing, packaging, and distribution of rinse-off cosmetics containing plastic microbeads. The law also applies to products that are both cosmetics and non-prescription drugs, such as toothpastes.
• • US NOAA and EPA developed a report on microfiber pollution as a requirement of the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act of 2020. The report was published in 2024 and provides the United States Congress (and the general public) with an overview of the microfiber pollution issue, while also outlining a path forward for federal agencies, in partnership with other stakeholders, to address this problem.

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■ Others
Brief description:

• • On July 19, 2024, the Biden-Harris administration announced its commitment to phase-out federal procurement of single-use plastics from food service operations, events and packaging by 2027, and from all federal operations by 2035.
• • The US Department of the Interior Secretary's Order (SO) 3407 aims to reduce the procurement, sale and distribution of single-use plastic products and packaging with a goal of phasing out all single-use plastic products on Department-managed lands by 2032.
• • There are no single use plastic policies at the national level. Solid waste management, including policies and measures on single use plastics, are determined and implemented at the state and local level. There have been numerous state and local level bans and fees implemented that apply to specific single-use plastic products.

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Specific Measures:

• • The United States does not have national EPR. However, there are 139 EPR laws at the sub-national level including 33 states with EPR across 19 product categories. Five US states have EPR for packaging, including plastic packaging. These five states are Maine, Oregon, California, Colorado, and Minnesota. For more information, visit the below links:
  • Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in the US Explained (cleanhub.com)
  • Homepage - Product Stewardship Institute

Specific Measures:

• • Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
• • Trash Free Waters Program
• • Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling Grants

Brief description:

• • The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) charges EPA to protect human health and the environment from potential hazards of waste disposal; conserve energy and natural resources; reduce the amount of waste generated; and ensure that wastes are managed in an environmentally sound manner by establishing minimum national criteria for solid waste facilities. RCRA regulations are generally implemented by states and Tribes and/or at the local level, with state, tribal or local governments having the option to put forth regulations that are more stringent than the national standards. These national standards are critically important to ensuring the sound management of solid waste nationwide. Facilities that do not meet these standards are considered open dumps that must close. EPA implements the conservation mandate in RCRA through its Sustainable Materials Management Program. Sustainable materials management (SMM) is a systemic approach to using and reusing materials more productively and effectively over their entire life cycles. By looking at a material’s entire life cycle, we can find new opportunities to reduce environmental impacts, conserve resources and reduce costs. Recycling and waste diversion programs also are primarily implemented at the state, tribal and local levels.
• • Trash Free Waters – is a voluntary program that emphasizes stakeholder engagement to assist U.S. communities with addressing primarily land-based sources of marine litter. Within the United States, there have been well over 80 place-based projects that have been or are being developed and implemented with financial or technical assistance from the Trash Free Waters program. These include projects addressing outreach/education, trash capture, source reduction efforts, monitoring, research, and more. Trash Free Waters also develops tools and resources that provide useful information to help stakeholders keep trash out of waterways. Tools include a best practices compendium so that municipalities, NGOs, and others can get information on costs and effectiveness of various management practices; a litter control policy and program document for the Gulf states; a Trash Stormwater Permit Compendium outlining effective stormwater permit trash provisions for use by stormwater permit writers and stormwater planners; a trash assessment protocol that allows for detailed characterization of trash pollution to inform management practices, permit provisions, and impaired waterbody listings; a Report on Priority Microplastics Research Needs; regional, state, and multi-state Trash Free Waters strategies, and a new pilot project to launch reusable foodware systems at city-scale with four partner cities, in addition to several other information resources.
• • The Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling program provides grants to implement the National Recycling Strategy to improve post-consumer materials management and infrastructure; support improvements to local post-consumer materials management and recycling programs; and assist local waste management authorities in making improvements to local waste management systems.

Specific Measures:

• •　Consumer Recycling Education and Outreach Grant Program
• •　EPA’s Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program
• •　Pollution Prevention Grant: Environmental Justice Through Safer and More Sustainable Products

Brief Description:

• • The Consumer Recycling Education and Outreach Grant Program provides $75,000,000 to award education and outreach grants focused on improving material recycling, recovery, management, and reduction and directs EPA to develop a model recycling program toolkit for States, tribes, local governments. Funded projects should inform the public about residential or community recycling programs, provide information about the recycled materials that are accepted, increase collection rates, and decrease contamination.
• • EPA’s Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program is expanding the Recommendations of Specifications, Standards, and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing in the food service ware category. This will cover reusable food service ware in addition to compostable or recyclable. U.S. federal purchasers would be required to utilize any standards and ecolabels added in these categories in all applicable procurements. The updates are expected to go out for public comment in Fall 2024.
• • Pollution Prevention Grant: Environmental Justice Through Safer and More Sustainable Products provides pollution prevention (P2) technical assistance to businesses (e.g., information, training, expert advice) in order to improve human health and the environment in disadvantaged communities by increasing the supply, demand and use of safer and more sustainable products, such as those that are certified by EPA’s Safer Choice program, or those that conform to EPA’s Recommendations for Specifications, Standards and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing (Recommendations). Eligible products include transitioning from single-use to reusable food service ware.

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Specific Measures:
NOAA Marine Debris Program Interception Technologies Grants

• • Up to $11 Million for grants in FY24 and FY25 in the United States for the installation, monitoring, and maintenance of proven marine debris interception technologies that capture marine debris at or close to known marine debris sources or pathways. These proven technologies include litter traps, shoreline removal technologies, booms, skimmers, conveyors, floating collection devices, and other technologies.

Specific Measures:

• • NOAA Marine Debris Program Removal Grants
• • NOAA Marine Debris Program Prevention Grants
• • EPA Trash Free Waters

Brief Description:

• • NOAA’s Marine Debris Program provides annual funding to partners in the U.S. to support locally driven, community-based marine debris removal projects. These projects benefit coastal habitat, waterways, and wildlife including migratory fish. Since 2006, NOAA has supported over 100 marine debris removal projects and removed more than 22,500 metric tons of marine debris from our coasts and ocean.
• • NOAA’s Marine Debris Program also supports projects across the country that use outreach and education as a way to prevent marine debris. These projects aim to change behavior, especially among youth, and provide them with hands-on experiences that deepen their understanding of the marine debris problem. Additional projects support engagement with industry partners to reduce the loss of fishing gear, and the occurrence of abandoned and derelict vessels.
• • Trash Free Waters – is a voluntary program that emphasizes stakeholder engagement to assist U.S. communities with addressing primarily land-based sources of marine litter. Within the United States, there have been a large number of place-based projects that have been or are being developed and implemented with financial or technical assistance from the Trash Free Waters program. These include projects addressing outreach/education, trash capture, source reduction efforts, monitoring, research, and more. Trash Free Waters also develops tools and resources that provide useful information to help stakeholders keep trash out of waterways. Tools include a best practices compendium so that municipalities, NGOs, and others can get information on costs and effectiveness of various management practices; a litter control policy and program document for the Gulf states; a Trash Stormwater Permit Compendium outlining effective stormwater permit trash provisions for use by stormwater permit writers and stormwater planners; a trash assessment protocol that allows for detailed characterization of trash pollution to inform management practices, permit provisions, and impaired waterbody listings; a Report on Priority Microplastics Research Needs; regional, state, and multi-state Trash Free Waters strategies, and a new pilot project to launch reusable foodware systems at city-scale with four partner cities, in addition to several other information resources.

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Specific Measures:
NOAA Marine Debris Program Removal Grants

• • NOAA funds projects across the U.S. that remove derelict fishing gear/ ghost gear from the ocean and U.S. Great Lakes. Since 2006, the NOAA Marine Debris Program has also been involved in a major NOAA effort to remove marine debris from the shorelines of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (monument). Through this project, which began in 1996, over 848 metric tons of derelict fishing gear have been removed from the monument’s shorelines.

Specific Measures:

• • Global Ghost Gear Initiative Engagement (GGGI)
• • United States Department of State Marine Debris Grants
• • NOAA Marine Debris Program - Marine Debris Prevention Grants
• • Promoting Action in international fora
• • USAID Clean Cities, Blue Ocean (CCBO) Grants

Brief Description:

• • The GGGI is seen as the preeminent global organization comprised of national governments, NGOs, and industry with the objective of combating abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear. In 2020 the United States joined the GGGI as a government member and is working with the organization to combat ghost gear globally through promotion of the voluntary gear marking guidelines developed by the FAO with input from the GGGI.
• • The Department of State has administered over four million dollars in grants aimed at helping address marine debris from both land and sea-based sources. DOS worked with grantee Ocean Conservancy on the development of the project titled “Implementing Best Practices for Fishing Gear Management to Reduce and Prevent ALDFG in the Caribbean Region,” to reduce and prevent the incidence of abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) in Jamaica and Dominica. The grantee incorporated the Global Ghost Gear Initiative Best Practices Framework into the COAST checklist for incentivizing good fisheries management practices through an insurance product and made progress toward implementing the framework; developed innovative fishing gear and gear marking technologies to prevent ALDFG and facilitate gear recovery; and gathered information on the most prevalent types of ALDFG in Caribbean nations to develop a standardized gear retrieval protocol.
• • NOAA Marine Debris Program - Marine Debris Prevention Grants - NOAA funds projects across the U.S. that prevent the occurrence of derelict fishing gear/ghost gear in marine and freshwater environments. These projects can focus on stakeholder engagement of fishers and sharing of best practices to prevent gear loss. NOAA also provides opportunities for end-of-life disposal of fishing gear, which helps incentivize more environmentally sound practices among fishers and port managing entities when gear is no longer usable.
• • NOAA, in collaboration with the Department of State and the U.S. Coast Guard, is engaged in several international organizations and processes - including Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs), the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) - to develop and implement strong provisions to prevent and reduce ADLFG. For example:
  • Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) - NOAA provided expertise in the development of the FAO Voluntary Guidelines for the Marking of Fishing Gear and will continue to support implementation of these guidelines at the national and international level. These guidelines will help reduce and mitigate impacts from ALDFG, thereby protecting the marine environment, supporting safety at sea, and aiding in identification of IUU fishing activities.
  • International Maritime Organization (IMO) - The United States, including NOAA, continues to provide input to the International Maritime Organization Marine Environment Protection Committee and Sub-Committee on Pollution Prevention and Response as the IMO considers actions to strengthen MARPOL Annex V.
  • Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution - The United States has proposed and supported provisions on preventing and addressing ALDFG in the negotiations to develop a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution.
• • The U.S. Agency for International Development has administered over $11 million in grants aimed at reducing ocean plastic pollution from land- and sea-based sources as part of the Clean Cities, Blue Ocean program. Grantee WFF Peru is developing models for inorganic waste management from fishing operations at the landing sites in the municipalities of Mancora and Paita. The models WWF Peru is developing focus on circular economy principles - recycling inorganic fishing waste, including plastics, and addressing the issue of abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear.

Specific Measures:

• • United States Department of State Marine Debris Grants
• • NOAA Marine Debris Prevention and Removal Grants

Brief Description:

• • The Department of State has administered over four million dollars in grants aimed at helping address marine debris from both land and sea-based sources. Grantee WWF Peru implemented the project titled, “Making a business out of a problem: Creating a circular economy for abandoned, lost, and discarded fishing gear in Peru,” with the intent to prevent and reduce the amount of Abandoned, Lost, or otherwise Discarded Fishing Gear (ALDFG) entering Peru’s coastal waters by collecting and recycling end-of-life fishing gear. The project launched net collection programs in three communities, obtained signed letters of commitment from the three largest anchoveta fisheries in Peru (Tasa, Copeinca, Austral), and secured a supply of more than 200,000 kg annually of end-of-life fishing nets for recycling. DOS worked with grantee Ocean Conservancy on the development of the project titled “Implementing Best Practices for Fishing Gear Management to Reduce and Prevent ALDFG in the Caribbean Region,” to reduce and prevent the incidence of abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) in Jamaica and Dominica. The grantee incorporated the Global Ghost Gear Initiative Best Practices Framework into the COAST checklist for incentivizing good fisheries management practices through an insurance product and made progress toward implementing the framework; developed innovative fishing gear and gear marking technologies to prevent ALDFG and facilitate gear recovery; and gathered information on the most prevalent types of ALDFG in Caribbean nations to develop a standardized gear retrieval protocol.
• • NOAA’s Marine Debris Program has funded small scale project work focusing on the collection and recycling of end of life fishing gear and including ALDFG in some circumstances. One effort, the North American Net Collection Initiative, is a cross-border effort, working with entities in both the U.S. and Mexico to collect used and retired fishing gear for processing and recycling for use in new products.

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (EPA) Voluntary Programs

• • National Recycling Strategy –The National Recycling Strategy was published in November 2021 and identifies strategic objectives and actions needed to create a stronger, more resilient, and cost-effective U.S. municipal solid waste recycling system. Recycling has been a critical component of the EPA’s decades-long efforts to implement the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and its more recent efforts to pursue a Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) approach, which aims to reduce the environmental impacts of materials across their lifecycle. Building on the National Framework for Advancing the U.S. Recycling System and EPA’s long history of providing data, tools, information and other resources to support recycling in the United States. The strategy aligns with and supports implementation of the National Recycling Goal - to increase the recycling rate to 50 percent by 2030.
• • Recycling Education and Outreach (REO) Grant Program - The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides $75 million total from Fiscal Year 2022 to Fiscal Year 2026 for grants to fund a new Recycling Education and Outreach Grant Program. Projects funded through the grant program will:
  • Inform the public about residential or community recycling or composting programs.
  • Provide information about the materials that are accepted as part of residential or community recycling or composting programs.
  • Increase collection rates and decrease contamination across the nation.
• • The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law also requires EPA to develop a model recycling program toolkit. This toolkit can be used by grant applicants to help design or improve recycling, composting, and other material management programs.

Clean Water Act

• • Trash Free Waters Voluntary Work in the US – Since 2013, the Trash Free Waters Program has provided technical or financial assistance on a large number of domestic, place-based projects across the United States, including source reduction, trash capture, outreach and education, research, and other types of projects.”

Marine Debris Act

• • Development of public awareness materials and social media platforms for sharing information to increase awareness and drive behavioral change to reduce the amount and impacts of marine debris.

Pollution Prevention

• • EPA hosted the “P2 in Action Webinar Series” focused on implementing source reduction strategies to advance sustainability across sectors. Topics thus far include sustainable products and purchasing, reusable food service ware, and reducing PFAS in products.

Specific Measures:

• • The CIRCLE Alliance: Catalyzing Inclusive, Resilient, and Circular Local Economies is the new flagship public-private collaboration under USAID’s Save Our Seas Initiative. CIRCLE is a $21 million public-private initiative to scale solutions that will reduce plastic use and tackle plastic waste, founded by Unilever, USAID, and EY. CIRCLE aims to support women’s economic empowerment, improve livelihoods - including for informal workers - and protect the environment by accelerating the development of circular economies. CIRCLE will help enterprises across the local plastic value chain to scale their collection and recycling capabilities, avoiding landfill and incineration, develop and scale reuse-refill models to reduce plastic use, and ultimately integrate into corporate partners’ supply chains.

Specific Measures:

• • EPA Marine Litter Related Voluntary Work · Trash Free Waters – is a voluntary program that emphasizes stakeholder engagement to assist U.S. communities with addressing primarily land-based sources of marine litter. Within the United States, there have been a large number of place-based projects that have been or are being developed and implemented with financial or technical assistance from the Trash Free Waters program. These include projects addressing outreach/education, trash capture, source reduction efforts, monitoring, research, and more. Trash Free Waters also develops tools and resources that provide useful information to help stakeholders keep trash out of waterways. Tools include a best practices compendium so that municipalities, NGOs, and others can get information on costs and effectiveness of various management practices; a litter control policy and program document for the Gulf states; a Trash Stormwater Permit Compendium outlining effective stormwater permit trash provisions for use by stormwater permit writers and stormwater planners; a trash assessment protocol that allows for detailed characterization of trash pollution to inform management practices, permit provisions, and impaired waterbody listings; a Report on Priority Microplastics Research Needs; regional, state, and multi-state Trash Free Waters strategies, and a new pilot project to launch reusable foodware systems at city-scale with four partner cities, in addition to several other information resources.
• • NOAA’s Marine Debris Program supports projects across the country that use outreach and education as a way to prevent marine debris. These projects aim to change behavior, especially among youth, and provide them with hands-on experiences that deepen their understanding of the marine debris problem. Additional projects support engagement with industry partners to reduce the loss of fishing gear, and the occurrence of abandoned and derelict vessels. The NOAA Marine Debris Program website also houses a suite of publicly available free resources, including disciplinary lesson plans, units, and full curricula designed to support learning for students of all ages.
• • Stormwater Runoff and Marine Litter Prevention- Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) – The U.S., Canada and Mexico are implementing projects to reduce marine litter along the transboundary watersheds since 2017. The current CEC (“Last Stop the Ocean” refer to 3.5.2) project on marine litter includes the development of a toolkit and training guide for decision makers on the stakeholder engagement process. Specifically, the CEC released the Reducing Marine Litter Through Local Action: A Toolkit for Community Engagement which is targeted towards inland communities, including urban inland areas. The messaging includes a focus on water and trash flow, the full life cycle of a product, and concrete actions that offer individual solutions. Please also refer to 3.5.2 awareness-raising campaigns related to marine plastic litter section for more details as well as information on the “Last Stop: the Ocean,” public information campaign

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Specific Measures:
Department of Energy Strategy for Plastics Innovation and Plastics Innovation Challenge: The Plastics Innovations Challenge focuses resources from across the U.S. Department of Energy to create a comprehensive program to accelerate innovations that will dramatically reduce plastic waste in oceans and landfills and position the U.S as global leaders in advanced plastics recycling technologies and in the manufacture of new plastics that are recyclable by design. The Plastics Innovation Challenge draws on both fundamental and applied research capabilities within National Labs, universities and industry. Using a coordinated suite of funding opportunities, critical partnerships, and other programs, the Plastics Innovation Challenge sets the following 5 goals for the United States to reach by 2030:

1. Develop collection technologies to prevent plastics from entering waterways or facilitate its removal.
2. Develop biological and chemical methods for deconstructing plastic wastes into useful chemicals.
3. Develop technologies to upcycle waste chemical streams into higher value products, encouraging increased recycling.
4. Develop new plastics that are recyclable by design and can be scaled for domestic manufacturability.
5. Support a domestic plastics upcycling supply chain by helping companies scale and deploy new technologies in domestic and global markets.

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■ National
Brief Description:

• • Lifecycle assessment of polymers consumed in the U.S. has been conducted:
  Manufacturing energy and greenhouse gas emissions associated with plastics consumption
• • Lifecycle assessment comparisons between multiple end of life fates for polymers has been conducted to support data-based decision making for management of plastic waste:
  • Life cycle assessment of enzymatic poly(ethylene terephthalate) recycling - Green Chemistry (RSC Publishing) Technical, Economic, and Environmental Comparison of Closed-Loop Recycling Technologies for Common Plastics | ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
  • Techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment of mixed plastic waste gasification for production of methanol and hydrogen - Green Chemistry (RSC Publishing)
  • Techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment for catalytic fast pyrolysis of mixed plastic waste - Energy & Environmental Science (RSC Publishing)

Additional EPA Research:

• • Research on end-of-life plastic management, including analysis of the plastics life cycle and tracking chemical additive releases.
• • Research on waste recovery and beneficial reuse of plastics, including comparison of single-use plastics with alternatives by quantifying the environmental costs and full value for sustainable management of plastic materials and techniques to identify, sort and process plastics resins and additives used in electronic products.
• • Development of methods and tools to maximize the reuse of plastics and minimize disposal, including assessing alternatives to single-use plastics and plastic substitutes. This research supports the National Recycling Strategy.

Scope: ■ National
Brief Description:

• • The Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab has conducted a material flow analysis for plastics in the United States. (Link to the article: Paths to circularity for plastics in the United States - ScienceDirect). The analysis indicates that less than 7% of the 57 MMT of plastics consumed in the US is recycled and that by scaling polymer recycling technologies, the amount of plastic landfilled could be reduced by 70%.

Specific Measures:
■ Established a monitoring/reporting program/mechanism
■ Conduct monitoring/scientific research

Scope: ■ Local ■ National ■ Macro Plastics ■ Microplastics （<5㎜）

Brief Description:

• • EPA developed sample collection methods and a hybrid sediment extraction method for microplastics in sediments for the National Coastal Condition Assessment (NCCA) conducted as part of the National Aquatic Resource Surveys (NARS) https://www.astm.org/d8333-20.html
• • EPA and the Global Water Research Coalition have partnered on microplastic research including a round robin comparison and method harmonization for microplastic characterization and development of science briefs and fact sheets.
  • GWRC Microplastic Fact Sheet
• • EPA is collaborating with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), American Chemistry Council, and members of the National Nanotechnology Initiative to develop standard reference materials for microplastic analyses.
• • EPA is collaborating with the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project on microplastic methods testing and with the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) to develop standard methods for the collection and extraction of microplastics in water (https://www.astm.org/d8332-20.html , https://www.astm.org/d8333-20.html)
• • DOI’s United States Geological Survey (USGS) published “Integrated Science for the Study of Microplastics in the Environment – A Strategic Science Vision for the U.S. Geological Survey” for use by USGS scientists and stakeholders as a starting point for planning, prioritizing, and designing collaborative environmental microplastic science.
• • The Department of State and NOAA concluded a project in the APEC region to develop a tool to assist in the shoreline monitoring of marine debris in the Asia Pacific Region. This project developed a decision framework that helps non-technical audiences select the most appropriate shoreline marine debris monitoring protocol.

In Progress or Ongoing:

• • EPA is expanding its methods research to include characterization of microplastics in drinking water, stormwater, and wastewater.
• • EPA is evaluating human health effects of exposure to microplastics and ecological effects on freshwater and marine systems.
• • NOAA implements its Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Program (MDMAP), a citizen science initiative that engages partner organizations and volunteers across the United States in completing shoreline marine debris surveys. Through regular monitoring, NOAA and its many partners systematically collect data to compile a record of the amount and types of debris in the environment, track the progress of existing marine debris prevention initiatives, and identify targets for future mitigation efforts. NOAA’s Shoreline Monitoring Field Guide and Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Technical Memo provide shoreline and surface water monitoring techniques and considerations for monitoring other parts of the marine environment and are used as the basis for marine debris monitoring activities globally
  • Link to Shoreline Monitoring Field Guide:
    https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/protocol/noaa-marine-debris-monitoring-and-assessment-project-shoreline-survey-guide
  • Link to Technical Memo:
    https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/modeling-and-monitoring/marine-debris-monitoring-and-assessment-recommendations-monitoring-debris-trends-marine-environment
• • NOAA also maintains an MDMAP online database including data collected through shoreline marine debris surveys. All data is openly available for data analysis efforts, and it is intended that the data can be used to develop more effective prevention and mitigation strategies to prevent the impacts of marine debris. (Link to database: https://mdmap.orr.noaa.gov/login.)

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Specific Measures:

• • International Marine Debris Conference (IMDC) series – Since 1984, NOAA has hosted or supported seven International Marine Debris Conferences that engage a wide array of key stakeholders and the public to discuss all aspects of the marine debris issue. The last event, the 7IMDC, was held in September 2022 in the Republic of Korea and included over 900 attendees from 89 countries. This conference is action, solution, and change-oriented and includes sharing of lessons learned and best practices to reduce and prevent marine debris and its impacts; promoting international co-learning; exchanging innovative ideas such as market incentives and communication strategies; and sharing the latest research initiatives, methods, and results.
• • Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) – Last Stop the Ocean: The CEC, an international collaboration between Canada, Mexico and the United States on environmental issues of common interest in North America, carried out a pilot project to raise public awareness about the flow of litter downstream to the ocean. Litter capture devices were deployed in streams in three inland communities across North America. Litter caught in the traps were analyzed to help understand the sources and types of marine litter occurring. In the United States, the CEC worked with the Quad Cities Region, home to 400,000 people living in cities on both the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois sides of the Mississippi River. Trash traps were installed in three creeks in Davenport, Iowa to catch trash and prevent it from flowing downstream to the Mississippi River and eventually into the Gulf of Mexico. A public information campaign was employed: “Last Stop: The Ocean.” The campaign was created for cities, local or regional governments, watershed associations, NGOs and educational institutions. This collection of materials is designed to create awareness on water and trash flows and provide simple solutions for individuals to prevent and reduce land-based marine litter. It was developed by the CEC in collaboration with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Mexico's Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMARNAT), and the EPA, as part of a trinational collaborative project on building solutions to reduce marine litter.
• • Promoting action in international fora - NOAA, in collaboration with the Department of State and the U.S. Coast Guard, is engaged in several international organizations - including Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs), the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) - to develop and implement strong provisions to prevent and reduce ADLFG in international fisheries. For example, at the IMO, NOAA is working with international partners to better understand how and where fishing gear is lost or discarded at sea.
• • Arctic Council - EPA leads U.S. government participation in the Arctic Contaminants Action Program (ACAP) Working Group, which seeks to address contamination from hazardous chemicals and waste, reduce short-lived climate pollutants, improve air quality, and strengthen solid waste management, including reducing land-based sources of pollution and marine litter. In 2023, EPA partnered with the Battelle Memorial Institute to produce the report A Scoping Assessment of Solid Waste Management in Small and Remote Arctic Communities. This report provides a circumpolar overview of solid waste management in remote Arctic communities and describes challenges, opportunities and best practices, as well as suggests ideas for pilot projects that could serve as next step to improving solid waste management in the Arctic region. In 2024, EPA and Battelle Memorial Institute launched the subsequent project Solid Waste Management Pilot Projects in Small and Remote Arctic Communities. This project builds upon previous ACAP WG efforts in helping remote Arctic communities in the circumpolar Arctic address their solid waste management needs by providing financial assistance and expertise. A maximum of four communities will receive funding to develop and implement small-scale projects that result in measurable improvements in solid waste management. Other additional activities under this project include a workshop and the development of a solid waste website.

Target Regions:
■ Africa
■ South Asia
■ Oceania
■ Southeast Asia
■ Latin America and Caribbean

Specific Measures:
Waste Prevention & Strengthening Recycling (USAID)

• • Save Our Seas Initiative - In June 2022, USAID launched a new global flagship initiative to combat ocean plastic pollution globally—the Save Our Seas Initiative. Now in its second year, funding for the Save Our Seas Initiative has reached $138.7 million as of April 2024 to support 14 country and regional programs in key countries and regions that represent 40 percent of total global mismanaged plastic waste. The Save Our Seas Initiative draws on effective methods for reducing mismanaged waste in partner countries developed under USAID’s existing global program Clean Cities Blue Ocean (2019-2025), while scaling these approaches within key countries and to additional geographies for greater impact. The Initiative’s focus is on setting up and maintaining long-term relationships with country governments, and joining forces with other actors, namely the private sector, to expand the effectiveness and reach of limited public sector resources.
• • Save Our Seas Initiative’s Country and Regional Programs: to date, USAID has launched country programs in India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Kenya, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
  • India: The Innovations for Reducing Plastics for a Cleaner Environment in India (inREPLACE) program is USAID’s largest country partnership to date. The program aims to reduce plastic pollution by improving solid waste management at the city and state level and advancing a plastics circular economy through innovations.
  • Indonesia: Through the Sustainable Municipal Solid Waste Management and Partnership (SELARAS) USAID is increasing by 5-fold the number of Indonesian cities receiving support for sustainable and integrated solid waste management and recycling systems.
  • Nigeria: The Nigeria Plastic Solutions Activity will tackle the critical challenge of plastic waste management in Nigeria through innovative recycling solutions in partnership with the Coca-Cola Foundation. Funded equally by Coca-Cola and USAID, the primary objective is to recover approximately 49,000 metric tons of plastic waste by improving capacity for plastic collection, sorting, aggregating, and processing.
  • Kenya: Save Our Seas Initiative activities in Kenya address plastics policy (Plastic Producer Responsibility project), encourage innovations among aspiring entrepreneurs (Mombasa Plastics Prize Incubator Program, follow up on the Mombasa Plastics Prize), improve plastics collection and recycling operations (Coastal Plastic Circular Initiative project), and promote a circular economy waste management model (Unlocking the Plastic Value Chain project).
  • Ecuador: The Recycling, Adaptation, Development, Adjustment and Renewal (RADAR) project in Ecuador aims to support environmental conservation of the biodiversity-rich Galápagos Islands by reducing plastic pollution that reaches the ocean through improving integrated solid waste management systems in the provinces of Galápagos and Manabí.
  • Dominican Republic: The Dominican Republic Solid Waste Reduction Program will work in the northern coast of the country to reduce waste in municipalities, leading to cleaner oceans, building on work conducted by Clean Cities, Blue Ocean.
  • Vietnam: The Vietnam Action Against Plastic Pollution program works with local and national governments, communities, and the private sector to reduce plastic pollution by supporting implementation of Vietnam’s Extended Producer Responsibility law, introducing effective solid waste management models, and demonstrating single use plastic reduction measures. USAID/Vietnam’s Reducing Pollution Activity also continues to support local organizations to work with stakeholders to develop models for plastic waste collection, sorting, and recycling in Ho Chi Minh City.
  • Sri Lanka and the Maldives: The Ocean Plastics Reduction Activity in Sri Lanka and the Maldives aims to reduce plastic pollution by decreasing industrial use of plastic and improving integrated solid waste management practices, working alongside local partners to target system inefficiencies and areas of reliance on virgin plastics.
• • Clean Cities, Blue Ocean (CCBO) – As part of the Save our Seas Initiative, USAID’s Clean Cities Blue Ocean Program is a six-year USAID global program that works in 31 cities and towns across 10 countries (Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Fiji, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, the Dominican Republic, and Peru) to build and advance circular economies and reduce ocean plastic pollution. Through a combination of technical assistance and grants, CCBO works to improve solid waste management systems in cities and municipalities that are at the heart of the global plastic pollution crisis, build capacity and commitment for the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle), and promote sustainable social and behavior change. In support of these objectives, the program partners with local and multinational corporations to effectively leverage private sector expertise, investment, and supply chains. Because they are a vital part of the waste value chain and key to the creation of a circular economy, CCBO also economically empowers informal waste collectors, especially women, through building capacity, providing access to credit, and facilitating safe working conditions. USAID’s Clean Cities Blue Ocean Program has to date:
  • safely managed more than 7.4 million metric tons of waste and recyclables;
  • secured nearly 1.2 million metric tons of plastic (the equivalent of over 127 billion plastic bottles) from leaking into the environment;
  • reduced, recovered, and diverted over 30,770 metric tons of plastic and other low-value waste from disposal;
  • trained over 17,000 individuals from local government, the informal waste sector, and local organizations to build local capacity for solid waste management planning and programs;
  • directly impacted over 11.3 million individuals through solid waste management training, household waste collection, and at-home composting programs;
  • awarded over $11 million through 73 grants to local partners to implement effective, locally-led solutions;
  • mobilized nearly $12.7 million in public and private investments to advance local solid waste management systems;
  • supported the advancement of 25 policies—one national-level and 24 subnational;
  • continued to build on strategic partnerships with local governments; donors including Norad and KOICA; and private sector partners, including Nestle Philippines, the Coca-Cola Foundation, and Tetra Pak, to build sustainable, circular economies.
• • The CIRCLE Alliance – In June 2024, USAID, Unilever and EY announced the launch of the flagship public-private partnership under the Save Our Seas Initiative: The CIRCLE Alliance is a new $21 million public-private initiative to scale solutions that will reduce plastic use and tackle plastic waste. Its aim is to support women’s economic empowerment, improve livelihoods, and protect the environment by accelerating the development of circular economies. The new Alliance responds to the urgent need for collective action on plastics in South and Southeast Asia. It also recognizes the critical contributions informal workers make in the circular economy and the importance of creating jobs that respect their human rights. It is anticipated that CIRCLE will help enterprises across the local plastic value chain to scale their collection and recycling capabilities, avoiding landfill and incineration, and develop and scale reuse-refill models to reduce plastic use. CIRCLE is initially focusing on India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, but the program has an open ambition to scale and expand to wider markets and materials by bringing in new organizations with additional funds to invest. CIRCLE works across three areas:
  • Developing social enterprises, offering a mix of grant funding and business consulting to organizations bringing plastics into circular economies;
  • Advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment, providing tailored support for women-led businesses in the sector; and
  • Supporting effective and transparent mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policies and implementation that contribute to a circular economy.

Infrastructure Investment (USAID):

• • Development Finance Corporation (DFC) partial loan guarantee for Circulate Capital – USAID signed an agreement with Circulate Capital to provide a $35 million, 50 percent loan-portfolio guarantee through DFC to incentivize private capital investment in the recycling value chain in South and Southeast Asia. The agreement leverages more than $100 million from a private-sector investment strategy managed by Circulate Capital, a firm dedicated to incubating and financing companies and infrastructure that prevent ocean plastic that is backed by multinational corporations, including PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Dow, Danone, Unilever, and Coca-Cola. The Fund has invested over $96 million to 16 companies in India and Indonesia, with more to come. USAID also entered a tripartite partnership with Circulate Capital and Prevented Ocean Plastic Southeast Asia (POPSEA)–itself a product of the DFC-backed investment–to build and operate financial sustainable plastic recovery systems.

Solid waste management capacity building projects in Southeast Asia in collaboration with UNEP's The Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA)

• • Malaysia- Increased recovery of recyclables in the Mersing Island archipelago through training of local stakeholders to segregate and collected waste at households and resorts. The project built a small waste transfer facility, procured waste bins and raised public awareness through a partnership with local resorts.
• • Indonesia – Project enhanced the operation of a Community-based materials recovery facility (MRF) by adding two waste bank units to Makassar City. This included training for users as well as procurement of standard equipment. In parallel, the second project also supported a social enterprise startup to empower local women in Untia to produce recycled products from single-use plastic items.

Solid Waste Management and Capacity Building Tools & Projects- Trash Free Waters

• • Trash Free Waters International Implementation Guide – EPA developed tool that provides step-by-step guidance in establishing a Trash Free Waters (TFW) program and projects. TFW is EPA’s participatory framework in involving stakeholders at the national, state, and local levels in decision-making for solutions to address marine, coastal and watershed issues related to marine plastic litter, as well as identifying and executing improvements to solid waste management.
• • Jamaica - Prioritize marine litter and solid waste management needs and develop projects and activities, including: procuring bins in Whitehouse-Bluefields communities; training schools and local staff in placing them and using the bins; and educating the general public about the impacts of trash.
• • Panama - Prioritize marine litter and solid waste management needs and develop projects and activities, including: identified included public awareness raising on solid waste management and the impacts of trash with local schools and universities. The project also included installation of a river trash boom on the Juan Diaz River.
• • Peru - Stakeholder workshop held involving over 70 participants. The pilot project identified for Chincha addressed solid waste management through helping two communities segregate and selectively collect at the source in order to recover more valuable recyclable material and prevent that material from entering waterways and the ocean.

Additional international efforts

• • Proven Practice Guide to Improve Waste Management and Address Plastic Pollution in Southeast Asia - The guide aims to holistically examine aspects of plastic pollution mitigation projects across a spectrum of implementation areas, which are detailed in the proven practice modules and include: stakeholder engagement, capacity building, implementation, social and behavior change, data and evaluation, and financing.
• • Strengthening the Connection Between Marine Litter and Solid Waste Management – United States-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement and United States-Panama Free Trade Agreement - Through an interagency agreement with the Department of State, EPA worked with the national governments of Panama, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic to engage all stakeholders in identifying solutions to the marine litter problem through improvements in solid waste management. Activities included virtual national dialogues, assisting in their development of national action plans for marine litter, and on-the-ground projects that support the countries’ own efforts. National action plans were completed in Costa Rica (2021), Panama (2022), and the Dominican Republic (2023). In addition, EPA used appropriated funds to support the development of national action plans for marine litter in El Salvador (completed in 2022) and Guatemala (completed in 2023). The EPA completed all 3 planned workshops on landfill management in Panama, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic in late summer 2021 and in 2022 conducted a sub-regional workshop in Central America Northern Triangle (El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala). In 2023-2024, EPA supported, the implementation of Costa Rica’s and El Salvador’s pilot projects in support of each country’s national marine litter action plan. Costa Rica’s pilot projects consisted in increasing marine litter and recycling awareness in fishing communities. Over fourteen community-level workshops were conducted. In El Salvador, the pilot project focused on the development of marine litter educational materials. The information was formated as an electronic book accessible to schools via the Ministry of Environment website. EPA also supported a marine litter baseline study for Honduras. The study is expected to facilitate Honduras efforts to develop the country’s first national marine litter action plan.
• • Stormwater Runoff and Marine Litter Prevention- Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) – The U.S., Canada and Mexico are implementing projects to reduce marine litter along the transboundary watersheds since 2017. The current CEC “Last Stop the Ocean” project on marine litter includes the development of a toolkit and training guide for decision makers on the stakeholder engagement process. Specifically, the CEC released the Reducing Marine Litter Through Local Action: A Toolkit for Community Engagement which is targeted towards inland communities, including urban inland areas. The messaging includes a focus on water and trash flow, the full life cycle of a product, and concrete actions that offer individual solutions. Please also refer to 3.5.1 awareness-raising campaigns related to marine plastic litter section for more details as well as information on the “Last Stop: the Ocean,” public information campaign.
• • Global Partnership on Marine Litter and Plastic Pollution – NOAA and DOS staff serve on the GPML Steering Committee to help guide its work. DOS has financially supported the development of a digital platform to share information on marine litter and plastics on a global level.
• • Basel Convention’s Plastic Waste Partnership - The Plastic Waste Partnership (PWP) was established at the 14th COP to the Basel Convention and has held three meetings since 2019. The goal of the PWP is to improve and promote the environmentally sound management of plastic waste and significantly reduce and in the long-term eliminate the discharge of plastic waste and microplastics into the environment, in particular the marine environment. Four project groups were established to begin work focusing on: plastic waste prevention and minimization; plastic waste collection, recycling and other recovery including financing and related markets; transboundary movements of plastic waste; and outreach, education and awareness-raising. While the United States is not a Party to the Basel Convention, it engages in all four project groups and has contributed $500,000 to fund pilot projects under the PWP.
• • U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement - In 2020, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) free trade agreement entered into force. This agreement continues the already strong collaboration between these governments to address marine debris in North America. In 2020, the U.S. also passed domestic legislation, the USMCA Implementation Act, that provided $8 million in funding to NOAA’s Marine Debris Program to address marine debris in North America of which NOAA is allocating over $7 million on marine debris projects in the region in 2021-2024. This legislation provides funding to address marine debris, and other environmental issues through the USMCA Commission on Environmental Cooperation.
• • Cartagena Convention Land-Based Sources (LBS) Protocol for the Wider Caribbean Region - The Protocol is an agreement under the Cartagena Convention (CC) that obligates Contracting Parties to address pollution from marine litter, nutrients, and wastewater. The US is a Contracting Party to the CC and LBS and participates in the Open-Ended Working Group that advises the Secretariat on efforts aimed at these issues. The LBS Protocol published a 2019 report, entitled “State of the Convention Area Report” (SOCAR) that provided the first ever compilation of national baseline data on coastal water quality, as well as a review of marine litter and plastic pollution in the region, rather than data extrapolated from global assessments.
• • Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum Engagement – The Department of State worked closely with industry and NGO partners to focus attention on combating marine debris using environmentally sound waste management best practices, innovation, and outreach in APEC.
  • The EPA, under the APEC project “Enhancing source separation and segregation of waste,” works to address marine plastic litter in the APEC region. The project included an implementation guide that takes waste practitioners step-by-step through establishing a labor-intensive separate waste collection and utilization system in small-to-medium sized cities in APEC region. This guide includes a case study of a project in Vietnam that exemplifies this approach as well as a virtual waste symposium to educate officials in APEC region on the implementation guide as well as case studies of similar approaches throughout the region.
  • Successes included receiving endorsement from APEC members for a revision to a 2009 report on the direct economic costs to APEC economies due to marine debris. The 2020 report revises estimates of the direct costs of marine debris to member economies to support arguments to strengthen regulatory and non-regulatory actions.
  • DOS also developed a marine debris management and innovation sub-fund and contributed US $800,000 to the fund. The fund will serve as a dedicated resource for APEC projects aiming to tackle the marine debris problem. DOS continues to engage major source countries in Southeast Asia to encourage policy changes needed to prevent and reduce marine debris. There are four projects that have been approved by APEC member economies to address and better understand marine debris in the APEC region. The United States, through DOS, NOAA, EPA, and FDA, implements projects to better understand and address many aspects of the marine debris/marine plastic litter issue through the APEC Oceans and Fisheries Working Group, including through implementation of approved APEC projects.
• • Global Ghost Gear Initiative Engagement – The GGGI is seen as the preeminent global organization comprised of national governments, NGOs, and industry with the objective of combating abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear. In 2020 the United States joined the GGGI as a government member and is working with the organization to combat ghost gear globally through promotion of the voluntary gear marking guidelines developed by the FAO with input from the GGGI.
• • United States Department of State Marine Debris Grants – The Department of State has administered over four million dollars in grants aimed at helping address marine debris from both land and sea-based sources. One example is a grant provided to the Center for Community Health Research and Development which implemented a project titled, “Social Mobilization For Marine Waste Management”, which aimed to reduce marine debris via social change in Ly Son Island, Vietnam. The project has established a local steering committee on environmental protection; delivered 50 new public waste receptacles; gathered more than 300 people to clean 15km of coast; collected 500kg plastic waste; trained 50 people in waste collection and processing; trained 45 community leaders in communications skills; trained 600 households in proper waste sorting, resulting in a ten-fold increase in the percentage of households practicing proper waste sorting; and provided 3,000 households with reusable shopping baskets to replace single-use plastic bags.
  • Additionally, grantee WWF Peru implemented the project titled, “Making a business out of a problem: Creating a circular economy for abandoned, lost, and discarded fishing gear in Peru,” with the intent to prevent and reduce the amount of Abandoned, Lost, or otherwise Discarded Fishing Gear (ALDFG) entering Peru’s coastal waters by collecting and recycling end-of-life fishing gear. The project launched net collection programs in three communities, obtained signed letters of commitment from the three largest anchoveta fisheries in Peru (Tasa, Copeinca, Austral), and secured a supply of more than 200,000 kg annually of end of life fishing nets for recycling.
  • DOS worked with grantee Ocean Conservancy on the development of the project titled “Implementing Best Practices for Fishing Gear Management to Reduce and Prevent ALDFG in the Caribbean Region,” to reduce and prevent the incidence of abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) in Jamaica and Dominica. The grantee incorporated the Global Ghost Gear Initiative Best Practices Framework into the COAST checklist for incentivizing good fisheries management practices through an insurance product and made progress toward implementing the framework; developed innovative fishing gear and gear marking technologies to prevent ALDFG and facilitate gear recovery; and gathered information on the most prevalent types of ALDFG in Caribbean nations to develop a standardized gear retrieval protocol.
  • DOS supports innovative technologies and approaches to combatting marine debris through our grants. This includes grantee WWF-Hong Kong, who developed a project titled “All Hands on Deck - A Community-Based Marine Litter Reduction Programme”, which conducted three coastal cleanup activities, three community fora, selected three types of alternative fish boxes to be tested by the fishing industry to reduce polystyrene marine debris, and engaged the major players (including fishery and seafood industries, and manufacturers of boxes) to obtain support to change from polystyrene to alternative boxes
  • DOS supports strengthening efforts in Vietnam to combat marine debris. The project focused on three objectives: 1) supporting implementation of Vietnam’s National Action Plan of Marine Plastic Waste (NAP) and influencing similar progress on a regional and global level; 2) increasing access to financing for improved and more sustainable waste management infrastructure; and 3) increased availability of Vietnam-specific science to influence data-driven policymaking and identify interventions to reduce leakage of waste into the ocean. Results of the project included establishing and sharing best practices for addressing marine debris with government actors in Vietnam and regionally; increasing access to financing in the formal and informal waste management sectors; building local capacity for advocacy; and producing actionable Vietnam-specific science to support efforts to combat marine debris.
  • Another grantee, The Global Knowledge Initiative (GKI), developed a project called “Building Ecosystems to Reduce Waste in Our Oceans - Ocean Plastic Prevention Incubators”. GKI, and subgrantees SecondMuse and Circulate Capital, aim to reduce marine debris by building effective waste management and plastic recycling economies in Indonesia and the Philippines. The grantees have drafted three case studies and one policy guideline; hosted a workshop that led to the establishment of a stakeholder meeting forum; planned a public Plastics Festival in Surabaya to raise awareness; and built a database of more than 200 waste and recycling operators and potential partners.
• • NOAA support to Urban Ocean Initiative – NOAA’s Marine Debris Program is supporting the Urban Ocean Initiative, an effort led by the Ocean Conservancy, an international marine environmental NGO, to better address land-based debris resulting from urban environments. This initiative provides a platform for select city governments around the world to connect with one another as well as with community leaders, academia, and the private sector to develop, share, and scale solutions to the ocean plastics crisis. In FY2024, NOAA helped fund an Urban Ocean Summit including over 60 representatives from cities, academia, civil society, and the private sector to share knowledge, and create potential funding and collaboration opportunities to support cities in their efforts to reduce plastic pollution in their communities.