Saving the ocean from plastic waste

An estimated eight million metric tons of plastic waste leaks into the ocean every year. Action in just five countries could stem that tide.

The amount of unmanaged plastic waste entering the ocean has reached crisis levels. On current trends, the global quantity of plastic in the ocean could nearly double to 250 million metric tons by 2025—or one ton of plastic for every three tons of fish. Yet a collective response by ocean states, especially by the handful of Asian countries with particularly high volumes of unmanaged plastic waste, could almost halve this total, mitigating the mounting environmental and economic damage.

Critically, our research found that more than half of the plastic leaking into the ocean comes from just five countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. As an immediate priority, we believe there is an opportunity to reduce plastic-waste leakage by 65 percent in these five countries—resulting in a 45 percent reduction globally—through measures including closing leakage points within the collection system, increasing waste-collection rates, using a variety of technologies to treat waste, and manually sorting high-value plastic waste.

Our report identified six cornerstones of a concerted program to stem global plastic-waste leakage:

1. obtaining real and meaningful commitments from national governments, governors, and mayors to set and achieve ambitious waste-management targets
2. providing local “proofs of concept” for integrated waste-management approaches in a number of carefully selected pilot cities
3. building a best-practice transfer mechanism of global expertise to high-priority cities
4. ensuring required project-investment conditions are in place
5. facilitating technology implementation by equipping technology providers with detailed data
6. bringing leadership and a strategic focus on solutions as part of the global policy agenda on the ocean

The total cost of implementing measures to reduce plastic-waste leakage is estimated at $5 billion a year and would, to a significant degree, be covered by existing commitments to build waste-management systems. Additional funding requirements could be met through typical project-financing mechanisms involving the public, private, and multilateral sectors.

Further reading: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/sustainability/our-insights/saving-the-ocean-from-plastic-waste