EPA - Ireland's Environment 2016

Ireland’s Environment – An Assessment 2016

102

Marine Litter

Marine litter is a threat to the health of our seas

and coasts.

Much legislative focus to date has been on waste in the

terrestrial environment, but marine litter is increasingly under

the spotlight. The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive

(2008/56/EC) identifies marine litter as one area to tackle in

order to achieve good environmental status for all marine

waters by 2020. The 2030 UN Sustainable Development

Goals include a target to “prevent and significantly reduce

marine pollution of all kinds”. Marine litter comes from

land activities (e.g. littering, landfills, storm water drain

discharges) and marine activities (fishing, offshore mining

and extraction, illegal dumping at sea) and is a cross-border

problem; once it enters the sea, it has no owner (see

Figure 6.12). This makes its management dependent on

good regional and international collaboration.

Plastic debris is particularly worrying because of its

resistance to environmental breakdown. Marine species

are affected through ingestion and/or entanglement.

Microplastics or beads (items smaller than 5 mm) are of

particular concern due to their potential toxicity and size.

Microplastics come from products (cosmetic exfoliants,

industrial abrasives), fragments from larger plastics, or

fibres from washing clothes carried by sewage. While the

consequences of plastic build-up in the food chain are

not fully known, human health concerns are being raised.

Several NGO and State based campaigns are currently

focussed on banning micro-beads in product use.

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Ireland has a number of citizen initiatives that monitor

and report on marine litter. The Clean Coasts Volunteering

Programme promotes and facilitates clean-up initiatives

and marine litter surveys.

Over 1,000 volunteers

participated in the 2015 All-Ireland Coastwatch Survey.

Figure 6.12

Sources of Marine Litter (Source: An Taisce)