News: The G7 Summit Plastic Charter
The G7 Summit has been held in Charlevoix, Quebec, Canada on June 8-9, 2018. The significant threat of ocean plastic waste and marine litter to the marine ecosystem has been emphasized. A plastics charter was then announced and committed by Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the European Union to take a lifecycle approach to plastics stewardship on land and at sea, moving towards a more resource efficient and sustainable management of plastics. Canada will invest $100 million in the marine plastic pollution mitigation.
There are many opportunities for us, the PEOPLE Network, to promote the collaboration on research including the monitoring methodologies for marine plastics pollution, its impacts to the marine ecosystem and human health, and potential treatment technologies, as well as the increase of the social awareness and the change to achieve a more sustainable plastics management. Some correlated actions listed in the G7 Plastics Charter are shown as follows:
Education
- Supporting industry leadership initiatives and fostering knowledge exchange through existing alliances and other mechanisms.
- Support platforms for information sharing to foster awareness and education efforts on preventing and reducing plastic waste generation, plastics pollution and eliminating marine litter.
Research, innovation and new technologies
- Assessing current plastics consumption and undertaking prospective analysis on the level of plastic consumption by major sector use, while identifying and encouraging the elimination of unnecessary uses.
- Promoting the research, development and use of technologies to remove plastics and microplastics from waste water and sewage sludge.
- Guiding the development and appropriate use of new innovative plastic materials and alternatives to ensure they are not harmful to the environment.
- Developing science-based monitoring methodologies.
- Collaborating on research on the sources and fate of plastics and their impact on human and marine health.
For more information, please visit the official document “Charlevoix Blueprint for Healthy Oceans, Seas and Resilient Coastal Communities”.
