Stronger regional cooperation proposed to reduce marine litter

Tuan made the statement at the Fourth Meeting of the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA) Working Group on Marine Litter hosted by the VISI both in person and virtually forms within the framework of part two of the 25th Inter-governmental Meeting of the COBSEA. The meeting is underway in Hanoi from October 10–14.
A number of ideas were put forth at the event to address the current challenges in surveying and monitoring marine litter, including insufficient scientific evidence, data and information on marine debris and a lack of technology and tools for regular and effective monitoring of marine plastic pollution.

He suggested that regional partnerships are also important to tackling cross-border plastic pollution, facilitating the development of recycled plastic markets in East Asia and allowing regional countries to climb the circular economy’s global value chain.

According to Tuan, around 70–80% of marine litter originates from land-based human activities, and plastics accounts for some 80% of total marine debris. Six out of ten ASEAN member states alone create more than 31 million tonnes of plastic waste annually.

To address this issue, the Government of Vietnam has issued a national action plan on managing marine plastic litter by 2030 in which it pledges to cut the volume of plastic waste dumped into the oceans by 50% and 75%, respectively, by 2025 and 2030.

The Vietnamese Government has released a decree guiding the enforcement of the 2020 Law on Environment Protection on the management, recycling, reusing and treatment of plastic waste and development of a circular economy for plastics, he said, adding that Vietnam has developed a fundamental regulatory framework for the management of waste generally and marine litter, from production and consumption, to treatment.

The COBSEA member states are Cambodia, China, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.