Abstract
Marine litter is one of the most relevant pollution problems that our oceans are facing today. Marine litter in our oceans is a major threat to a sustainable planet. Here, we provide a comprehensive analysis of cutting-edge solutions developed globally to prevent, monitor and clean marine litter. Prevention in this research includes only innovative solutions to prevent litter entering oceans and seas rather than interventions such as waste reduction and recycling. On the basis of extensive search and data compilation, our analysis reveals that information is dispersed across platforms and is not easily accessible. In total, 177 solutions—the equivalent to <0.9% of the search hits—fulfilled our validation criteria and were evaluated. Most solutions (n = 106, 60%) primarily address monitoring and were developed during the past 3 years, with the scientific community being the key driver. Few solutions reached mature technical readiness and market availability, while none were validated for efficiency and environmental impact. Looking ahead, we elaborate on the limitations of the existing solutions, the challenges of developing new solutions, and provide recommendations for funding schemes and policy instruments to prevent, monitor and clean marine litter globally. In doing so, we encourage researchers, innovators and policy-makers worldwide to act towards achieving and sustaining a cleaner ocean for future generations.
Highlights
The quasi-exponential increase in marine litter or debris since the 1980s has been reported from as early as the early 1990s1
Our analysis demonstrates that many PMC solutions need to be improved further to reach the market
The solutions developed to date seem to be promising, but some knowledge gaps and constraints remain, such as (1) a lack of harmonized size terminology use and data harmonization; (2) technological and methodological immaturity in terms of technology readiness levels (TRL); (3) a lack of more-diverse solutions; and (4) a lack of information on the efficiency and environmental impact of solutions
Summary
The quasi-exponential increase in marine litter or debris since the 1980s has been reported from as early as the early 1990s1. With this increasing accumulation of marine litter, societies, policy-makers and industry seem to understand the importance of developing and deploying solutions for tackling marine litter These solutions should be effective and sustainable, including innovative technologies and new methods to prevent, monitor and clean (PMC) our seas and oceans. Despite the variety of literature on marine litter[10,11,12], impacts, its occurrence, monitoring and treatment[13,14,15], there is presently no integrative evaluation of proposed solutions addressing marine litter To fill this gap, we present a comprehensive global assessment of innovative solutions, including methods, technologies and operational deployments, which have been or are presently being developed to prevent more litter from entering our oceans and seas, monitor litter and clean the already accumulated litter (Fig. 1). This research further suggests where a future focus could be set for the management of marine litter that is already contaminating our seas and oceans, to achieve and sustain a healthy ocean and planet
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