Policy brief on pollution in oceans

Policy brief
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TABLE OF CONTENT
HIGHLIGHTS.................................................................................................................................3
CONTEXT AND PROBLEM STATEMENT.................................................................................3
Stating the issue and justifying the reason for its importance................................................3
Explaining the scope and scale of the issue............................................................................4
Identifying the areas where changes are required and stating the reason for same................6
Effects of inaction or policies which have been implemented...............................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
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HIGHLIGHTS
Plastic waste in oceans might lead to increase in the risk to the life of marine species. Such
type of water pollution can have negative effect on the health of marine species. This is issue of
major concern as such type of pollution in the ocean also have negative impact on the
biodiversity. There are many variables which contributes to the collection of plastic waste in the
ocean.
It is required by government in Britain to formulate as well as implement policies for
reducing the plastic wastes in the oceans. Presently, MARPOL is the annexure which is designed
by the legal authority ion Britain for controlling the sea based waste disposal.
The report will highlight the reason why the plastic pollution is the major problem. Study
will emphasize on analyzing the problem statement. It will also provide the suitable solutions for
specific problem.
CONTEXT AND PROBLEM STATEMENT
Stating the issue and justifying the reason for its importance
The huge amount of plastic waste is disposed in the ocean by people. Reason of increase in
plastic pollution in ocean is lack of strict enforcement of policies. The annexure that is MARPOL
exempt global fishing vessels, which means that they can dispose plastic or other type of waste
in the ocean. Considering the fact that plastic pollution can have serious consequences, it is
important for local people as well as government in the country to identify the issue and find
suitable solutions for dealing with the same.
Plastic pollution is considered to be major issue as plastics are filling landfills at an
alarming rate. It is causing great harm to the life of marine species. There has been continuous
rise in the death of marine species due to the consumption of microbe’s plastic 1 .
1 Borrelle, S.B., Rochman, C.M., and Provencher, J.F., 2017. Opinion: why we need an international
agreement on marine plastic pollution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114(38).
pp.9994-9997.
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Figure 1: Increase in plastic pollution
(Source: Ocean Pollution Facts, 2018)
Dispersion of plastic
There are number of ways through which plastic waste can enter into the ocean. The two
major sources through which plastic waste can enter into ocean these are sea and land based
pathways. It has been identified that approx. 60-80 percent of plastic contribute to a total
biomass of marine waste globally, and this waste moves in the complete oceans due to high
waves which further result in garbage throughout the ocean.
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