Small islands and remote coastal communities (SICs) are in the global spotlight as they are particularly affected by the global plastic pollution crisis and must deal with the combined input of plastics from the sea via ocean currents and from locally used plastics. There is an urgent need to take steps to reduce the current plastic footprint and stem the tide of plastic pollution and its leakage into the environment. This white paper identifies and showcases successful solutions for SICs and assesses them against a range of criteria, ensuring long term sustainability and replication. Despite the challenges they face, SICs have implemented innovative, fit-for-purpose, local solutions. Many of these can be replicated and customized according to the local conditions. Success has been achieved through efforts toward improving the enabling environment in the form of improved collection systems, legislative reform, and bans on single use plastics (SUPs). However, challenges remain, such as the lack of viable alternatives to banned plastics, economies of scale for recycling, and logistical solutions for recovery and recycling of plastics, as well as the feasibility of appropriate end of life disposal infrastructure. Research and development efforts continue in the chemical recycling space as well as for energy recovery, but finding existing replicable solutions at the scale of SICs proved challenging. Legacy materials and disaster resilience are often overlooked as solutions are implemented in SICs, and the financing of removal or remedial actions, especially for marine plastics, needs further attention. The resulting white paper was launched at INC-4 in Canada in April 2024 and is supported by the Alliance to End Plastic Waste and the PREVENT Waste Alliance.
Menu
