Fiona Mathews addresses Global Plastics Association’s President’s Meeting on Marine Litter

Earth Champions CEO, Fiona Mathews was invited to provide an external viewpoint on how the pressing and serious  issue of marine litter should be tackled by the 43 plastics industry associations that were meeting as a group for the first time at the worlds biggest exhibition on the latest developments in plastics technology in Dusseldorf, Germany, on November 3, 2010.Fiona spoke of the need for the industry to face the issues squarely and to seek the solutions locally as many of the solutions for capturing the plastics could be implemented on land before reaching water and the marine environment.
Fiona was joined by other global and EU experts such as Tim Bowmer from GESAMP (The Group of Experts on Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection) who reported on the scientific facts and the nature and extent of the marine litter problem as well as identifying the sources of the plastic litter,  Christopher Corbin (UNEP Caribbean) who outlined the political situation and the potential causes and solutions to the issue of marine litter problem and finally  Claude Rouam (EU Commission) who outlined the position of the EU and the the regulatory framework that might be used to monitor the problem. The presentations were followed by presentations and position statements by each industry association about how they viewed the problem and the actions be being implemented locally. The President of Plastics Europe and convener of the meeting, Jacques van Rijckevorsel, led the meeting in the final phase of identifying a joint initiative that could be adopted by the global industry. The European Plastics Industry proposed the adoption of   a charter that would direct all its members to be proactive in dealing with waste plastics and the disposal of the materials. This would serve as a template for other regions to become proactive in addressing this serious problem.