At an event at Florida Atlantic University today, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the federal strategy to address global marine litter. Wheeler was joined by U.S. Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), Deputy Energy Secretary Mark Menezes, Council on Environmental Quality Chair Mary Neumayr, Asst. Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Deputy Administrator Tim Gallaudet, and EPA Region 4 Administrator Mary Walker.
In addition to identifying existing U.S. legal authorities and federal programs already underway, the strategy focuses on building capacity, incentivizing the global recycling market, promoting R&D, and promoting marine litter removal.
Wheeler called marine litter “a top priority,” noting that up to 28 billion pounds of waste annually enter the ocean, “harming marine life and coastal economies.” Neumayr noted that “we must address this significant problem impacting the world’s oceans,” while Deputy Sec. Menezes said that “[w]hile the U.S. is not the world’s driver of the marine plastic problem,” the program “will develop new technologies to keep plastics from entering the ocean, new methods to deconstruct existing plastic waste and upcycle it, and new plastics specifically designed to be recycled.”
EPA noted that over 50% of plastic waste input into the ocean comes from China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
