The Scottish Government’s marine litter strategy has a clear purpose: to develop current and future measures to prevent litter from entering the marine and coastal environment, and to support its removal, in order to bring ecological, economic and social benefits.
The government has developed a list of specific actions on marine litter that will effect a positive change, looking at areas such as
- enforcement of the terrestrial littering and flytipping regulations
- a waste management system to improve recycling routes for end of life fishing gear
- policy options to reduce sources of sewage-related debris
- an international plastic pellet certification scheme
- removal of litter from rivers, thereby preventing this reaching the marine environment
- removal of litter from the sea, and recycling the material collected
- inter-tidal microplastic monitoring
- the data being obtained from litter removal projects.
They are now seeking input from the public and other organisations to finalise the strategy and action plan before it is published in 2022.
For more information, and to contribute your views, please go to the consultation website: https://consult.gov.scot/marine-scotland/updated-marine-litter-strategy-for-scotland/