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Tackling the Silent Killer of the Ocean
Of the enormous amount of debris that makes its way into our ocean each year, some 80 percent, or about 14 million tons, is plastic. Once it enters the water, plastic waste settles at every level of the ocean, from mixing with sediment in the deepest trenches of the Pacific to bobbing on the wavelets of shallow waters off beaches frequented by tourists.
Plastic is the ocean’s silent killer. It injures, suffocates, entangles, drowns and starves hundreds of marine animals, many of which mistake plastics for food.
“Every single minute, an entire garbage truck of plastic is dumped into the ocean,” said USAID’s Chief Climate Officer and Deputy Assistant Administrator Gillian Caldwell.
“And that number is expected to triple by 2030 and quadruple by 2040. And plastic in our oceans threatens the marine biodiversity, the health of the oceans, the tourism economies that depend on the oceans and our human health since increasingly microplastics are found inside our very bodies.”
Working through the Save Our Seas Initiative, “USAID is working to tackle plastic pollution at the source,” said Ms. Caldwell.
“So many countries in which we work … don't have the solid waste management facilities, and so they are openly dumping or burning waste, including plastics, and those plastics often wind up in the ocean. So, we're working with these countries to build the capacity at a municipal level, to manage that solid waste, to integrate women waste pickers into the cycle, to ensure that they have good living wages, to ensure that there's actually buyers for the recycled products.”
“And of course, we need to reduce the use of plastic altogether,” said Deputy Assistant Administrator Caldwell.
“So in places like the Maldives, we've looked at why is it that people are buying single use plastic bottles and noted that in that situation, it's because they can't afford the water filtration systems that would ensure they can get clean drinking water from … the tap. So, we worked with the Maldives government … and the utility to provide an affordable payment plan for people to be able to purchase the water filtration system.”
“We're working on ensuring circular economies, the right policy frameworks to enable that we function in a more sustainable way, that we produce less plastic,” said Ms. Caldwell, “and that companies take on more responsibility for managing the plastic they produce.”