Call for joined-up thinking to tackle marine litter

ESS has published a report, Marine Litter, an assessment of controls and progress in Scottish seas, which sets out recommendations for tackling this problem.

ESS is an independent public body, set up to ensure environmental laws and standards are adhered to in Scotland, replacing the European Union’s scrutiny and enforcement role after Brexit.

The report argues that a co-ordinated approach could help reduce the volume of plastic bottles, wet wipes, pellets and microplastic fibres from clothing and textiles, finding its way to the sea and our shores from land, rivers and waterways.

For example, greater integration between the Scottish Government’s “Marine Litter Strategy” and the “National Litter and Flytipping Strategy” could help to reduce land-derived litter at source before it reaches the sea.

The Marine Litter report says: “Fishing-derived litter (originating from recreational, commercial and aquaculture) is the greatest contributor to marine-derived litter across Scotland; however, estimates quantifying its proportion of marine litter in Scotland vary.

“Fishing-derived marine litter can be a result of gear being abandoned, lost or discarded but there is currently a lack of understanding regarding the major causes of this form of marine litter in Scotland. This is partly due to a lack of regular data collection on how much fishing gear is sold, in-use or ultimately lost through AFLDG [Abandoned, lost and discarded fishing gear].”

The report makes six recommendations:

Recommendation 1: The Scottish Government should establish a ‘source-to-sea’ approach to enhance the effectiveness of current and future policy and legislation by improving greater coordination between terrestrial and marine litter strategies.

Recommendation 2: The Scottish Government should specify how they plan to implement improvements to the handling and management of plastic pellets and clarify if they are on target to implement this by the end of 2025.

Recommendation 3: The Scottish Government, working with the UK Government where appropriate, should bring forward legislative proposals to reduce waste from single-use plastic food containers and plastic bottles, and adopt a more circular economy approach to reduce plastic production.

Recommendation 4: The Scottish Government should work with the UK Government to bring forward measures to tackle end-of-life fishing gear and should include a programme of work to identify and address the drivers and causes of fishing-derived marine litter in Scotland.

Recommendation 5: The Scottish Government should work through OSPAR with the UK Government to agree a programme to implement suitable indicators and an effective and resilient monitoring programme to assess marine litter.

Recommendation 6: The Scottish Government should set out how it proposes to maintain alignment with regulatory developments in the EU that are aimed at reducing microplastics in the marine environment.