The SeaCleaners, partner of Clean Seas

With 63 partner countries, the Clean Seas campaign is a global movement to tackle marine plastic pollution from source to sea. The commitments made by signatory countries cover more than 60% of the world’s coastline.

As part of our ongoing mission, we look forward to making a concrete contribution to the success of this initiative by raising awareness, inspiring by example, and taking action on the ground with our Mobula 8 clean-up solution boat and during onshore clean-up operations with our volunteer members.

Clean Seas, part of UNEP’s wider work on tackling marine litter and plastic pollution, shows that 80% of the plastic that ends up in the ocean comes from land-based sources. At least 11 million tons of plastic are washed into our seas each year – an amount that is expected to almost triple by 2040 if urgent and large-scale action is not taken.

The campaign is aimed at governments, industry and consumers. It aims to act on a number of different levers: it is through regulation, responsible production and consumption that the sources of plastic waste can be eliminated.

Consumers are called upon to avoid using certain products (bottles, straws, bags, certain type of cosmetics) and to put pressure on manufacturers to take into account the environmental impact of their production.

Governments are encouraged to take restrictive measures, for example to better inform their citizens, to introduce taxes on single-use plastic bags, to ban micro-plastics in cosmetics or non-reusable plastic tableware…

Every minute, the contents of a dumpster are dumped into the oceans. Plastics make up the majority of this waste (60-90%). The main items are cigarette butts, plastic bags, fishing tackle and food packaging.

The effects are devastating for fauna, flora, health and the economy, as fishing and tourism are impacted. More than 1,400 species are affected by the problem of marine litter, some of which are endangered due to the ingestion of plastic.

Protecting the oceans is United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 14 (Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development).

The Clean Seas campaign has triggered a global momentum in the way plastics are viewed and used. But there is still much to do and time is not on our side. There is no quick fix and plastic pollution cannot be neutralised by one sector of society or one country. The only limit is imagination.