An estimated 8 million metric tons (MMT) of plastic waste enters the world's ocean each year - the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck of plastic waste into the ocean every minute. Plastic waste is now found in almost every marine habitat, from the ocean surface to deep sea sediments to the ocean's vast mid-water region, as well as the Great Lakes. This report responds to a request in the bipartisan Save Our Seas 2.0 Act for a scientific synthesis of the role of the United States both in contributing to and responding to global ocean plastic waste. The United States is a major producer of plastics and in 2016, generated more plastic waste by weight and per capita than any other nation. Although the U.S. solid waste management system is advanced, it is not sufficient to deter leakage into the environment. Reckoning with the U.S. Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste calls for a national strategy by the end of 2022 to reduce the nation's contribution to global ocean plastic waste at every step - from production to its entry into the environment - including by substantially reducing U.S. solid waste generation. This report also recommends a nationally-coordinated and expanded monitoring system to track plastic pollution in order to understand the scales and sources of U.S. plastic waste, set reduction and management priorities, and measure progress.

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop, Vilamoura, Portugal, April 24-30, 1985

After a decade of attempts to control pollution with broad, sweeping legislation on a national scale, recent efforts have recognized the need to evaluate waste disposal on a case-by-case or regional basis, incorporating new knowledge about the consequences of disposal. This book examines the major uses and effects of waste disposal in the ocean, paying particular attention to California's coastal waters. The contributors, representing public agencies, academe, and research institutions, take into account environmental concerns while they focus on developing management strategies of using the oceans for waste disposal. The book is a result of the 1982 symposium "Ocean Disposal in the 1980s," which was sponsored by the Southern California Academy of Sciences