VIDEO: Obama Announces Action on Waste Plastic as Part of Plan to Clean Up the Oceans

Published in Waste Management World 20 June 2014 by Ben Messenger

The U.S. State Department hosted two-day conference earlier this week which saw new executive actions announced to protect the oceans and cut marine pollution.

The Our Oceans conference drew Heads of State, Foreign Ministers, policy makers, environmentalists, scientists and entrepreneurs from nearly 90 countries.

The U.S. used the conference to highlight its Trash Free Waters program to stop waste and debris from entering the ocean, through sustainable product design, increased material recovery and reuse, and a new nationwide trash prevention ethic.

Daniella Russo, co-founder of the Plastic Pollution Coalition, announced the Think Beyond Plastic™ Innovation Forum to advance entrepreneurship and to inspire innovations to reduce global plastic pollution, including in our ocean.

Norway meanwhile, is to allocate up to $1 million for a study on measures to combat marine plastic waste and microplastics.

Part of the Action Plan agreed at the conference called for significant reductions of debris, especially plastic waste, into the marine environment so as to achieve measurable reductions of marine debris by 2025.

President Obama underlined the importance of tackling the issue in a video message to the conference which can be seen in this week’s Newscast below.

Video Link:  http://bcove.me/wjqawe4a