The agreement to reduce plastic waste in the world’s oceans has been reached in Japan by the ministers of environmental protection of the G-20 countries, reports DW.
The first international agreement to reduce plastic waste in the world’s oceans was reached on Sunday, June 16, at the G20 meeting in Japan.
The agreement sets forth common rules for combating plastic pollution, said Yoshiaki Harada, Minister of Environmental Protection of Japan, at the end of a two-day meeting in which his colleagues from the G-20 countries took part.
The agreement spelled out specific measures against pollution with plastic waste, provides support for innovation in this area and improve scientific methods of analysis and observation.
At the same time, some of the wording of the agreement remains very vague, and its implementation will be carried out on a voluntary basis.
In addition, once a year it is supposed to issue a report on how the work on combating plastic waste is progressing.
The agreement reached at the G20 summit is only the first step towards resolving the problem; it is not enough to count only on voluntary actions, the Japanese branch of Greenpeace said. It is necessary to adopt mandatory for all rules for combating plastic waste with clearly defined goals and a plan of action.
Every year, the world’s oceans take about eight million tons of plastic trash. The most dangerous is microplastic – particles smaller than five millimeters, penetrating into the organisms of marine inhabitants and birds. They can get into human food.