Combating marine litter requires international collaboration and coordinated action. Although there has been a tremendous increase in public and political awareness of the Arctic Marine Litter, there are still large knowledge gaps regarding the sources, impact, extent and fate of plastics in the environment and lack of effective action to combat marine litter.
GRID-Arendal, with its partners is transforming scientific and traditional knowledge on the issue for information products to raise awareness and motivate decision makers and other stakeholders for action to reduce pollution in the Arctic. They include:
- a web-based platform for beach litter analysis in order to provide flexible learning opportunities across the Arctic and to promote stakeholder interactions to increase awareness about the sources of the marine litter and to reduce the pollution (in progress)
- a report summarizing and analysing topics arisen from conversations with Sámi knowledge-holders to explore solutions to the problematic use and disposal of ‘plastics’ through Sámi traditional knowledge (in progress)
- A story map on good practices of waste management in Arctic communities (in progress)
- Literature Summary Review in the Desktop Study on Marine Litter including Microplastics in the Arctic published The Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment Working Group (PAME) of the Arctic Council, now being used for developing an Arctic regional action plan on marine litter (completed)
In addition, GRID-Arendal is leading Thematic Network on the Arctic Plastic Pollution of the University of Arctic (UArctic), bringing together Arctic universities working on different aspects of marine litter under various disciplines and developing interdisciplinary research and education opportunities on marine litter.
