Transforming the Global Plastics Economy: The Role of Economic Policies in the Global Governance of Plastic Pollution

International policy discussions on plastic pollution are entering a new phase, with more than 100 governments calling for the launch of negotiations for a new global plastics agreement in 2022. This article aims to contribute to efforts to identify effective international policy levers to address plastic pollution. It takes stock of the evolution of views and perceptions on this complex and multi-faceted topic—from concerns about marine pollution and waste management towards new strategic directions that involve the entire plastics life-cycle and include climate and health impacts associated with the proliferation of plastics. It also traces the progressive development of responses—from voluntary approaches invovling multiple stakeholders to national and international approaches focused on regulation. The paper is informed by desk research, a literature review and participation by the authors in informal and formal global governance processes on plastic pollution, the environment and development in the United Nations and World Trade Organization between 2019 and 2021. It also draws on empirical findings from a novel and original database on the life-cycle of plastic trade created by the authors. The paper argues that the important focus on downstream dimensions of plastic pollution—and strategies to address them—needs to be complemented by a broad life-cycle and “upstream” perspective that addresses plastic pollution at its source. It highlights the political economy tensions and inconsistencies at hand, observing that while some countries are taking concerted efforts to reduce pollution (including through bans on certain kinds of plastic and plastic products); to promote more circular plastic economies; and to reduce the carbon footprint of plastics (as part of a wider effort to decarbonize their economies), trade and investment in the plastic industry continues to rise. The paper argues that to reduce plastic pollution, emerging global governance efforts must integrate international environmental law and cooperation with a complementary and enabling global framework that addresses the economic, financial, industrial and trade policies needed to drive the necessary transformation of the plastics sector.

Extracting the Maritime Traffic Route in Korea Based on Probabilistic Approach Using Automatic Identification System Big Data

To protect the environment around the world, we are actively developing ecofriendly energy. Offshore wind farm generation installed in the sea is extremely large among various energies, and friction with ships occurs regularly. Other than the traffic designated area and the traffic separate scheme, traffic routes in other sea areas are not protected in Korea. Furthermore, due to increased cargo volume and ship size, there is a risk of collisions with marine facilities and marine pollution. In this study, maritime safety traffic routes that must be preserved are created to ensure the safety of maritime traffic and to prevent accidents with ecofriendly energy projects. To construct maritime traffic routes, the analysis area is divided, and ships are classified using big data. These data are used to estimate density, and 50% maritime traffic is chosen. This result is obtained by categorizing the main route, inner branch route, and outer branch route. The Korean maritime traffic route is constructed, and the width of the route is indicated. Furthermore, this route can be applied as a navigation route for maritime autonomous surface ships.

Temporal and Spatial Analysis of PM2.5 and O3 Pollution Characteristics and Transmission in Central Liaoning Urban Agglomeration from 2015 to 2020

The central Liaoning urban agglomeration is an important heavy industry development base in China, and also an important part of the economy in northeast China. The atmospheric environmental problems caused by the development of heavy industry are particularly prominent. Trajectory clustering, potential source contribution (PSCF), and concentration weighted trajectory (CWT) analysis are used to discuss the temporal and spatial pollution characteristics of PM2.5 and ozone concentrations and reveal the regional atmospheric transmission pattern in central Liaoning urban agglomeration from 2015 to 2020. The results show that: (1) PM2.5 in the central Liaoning urban agglomeration showed a decreasing trend from 2015 to 2020. The concentration of PM2.5 is the lowest in 2018. Except for Benxi (34.7 µg/m3), the concentrations of PM2.5 in other cities do not meet the standard in 2020. The ozone concentration in Anshan, Liaoyang, and Shenyang reached the peaks in 2017, which are 68.76 µg/m3, 66.27 µg/m3, and 63.46 µg/m3 respectively. PM2.5 pollution is the highest in winter and the lowest in summer. The daily variation distribution of PM2.5 concentration showed a bimodal pattern. Ozone pollution is the most serious in summer, with the concentration of ozone reaching 131.14 µg/m3 in Shenyang. Fushun is affected by Shenyang intercity pollution, and the ozone concentration is high. (2) In terms of spatial distribution, the high values of PM2.5 are concentrated in monitoring stations in urban areas. On the contrary, the concentration of ozone in suburban stations is higher. The high concentration of ozone in the northeast of Anshan, Liaoyang, Shenyang to Tieling, and Fushun extended in a band distribution. (3) Through cluster analysis, it is found that PM2.5 and ozone in Shenyang are mainly affected by short-distance transport airflow. In winter, the weighted PSCF high-value area of PM2.5 presents as a potential contribution source zone of the northeast trend with wide coverage, in which the contribution value of the weighted CWT in the middle of Heilongjiang is the highest. The main potential source areas of ozone mass concentration in spring and summer are coastal cities and the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea. We conclude that the regional transmission of pollutants is an important factor of pollution, so we should pay attention to the supply of industrial sources and marine sources of marine pollution in the surrounding areas of cities, and strengthen the joint prevention and control of air pollution among regions. The research results of this article provide a useful reference for the central Liaoning urban agglomeration to improve air quality.

Visualized Quantitative Research or Marine Pollution in the South China Sea

The rapid social-economic development of the countries bordering the South China Sea has resulted in increased marine pollution of the region, yet little study has been carried out on marine pollution in the region. This article is one of the first few attempts among existing literature to understand marine pollution in the South China Sea as a large marine ecosystem and its implications for sustainability. We have conducted systematic literature reviews for marine pollution in the South China Sea and three other regional seas/large marine ecosystems, namely, the Gulf of California, the Mediterranean Sea, and the North Sea with the assistance of CiteSpace. By comparison of studies in the three regional seas, the research of marine pollution in the South China Sea only touches on the impact of microplastics, and existing literature in the area is less efficient in the study of impacts of modern pollution on marine organisms and the uncertain bioaccumulation effect on humanity. Therefore, it is recommended that researchers in the region cooperate to conduct a holistic study of ocean pollution, and study of biological impacts of pollution on marine organisms should be strengthened.

Stopping Macroplastic and Microplastic Pollution at Source by Installing Novel Technologies in River Estuaries and Waste Water Treatment Plants: The CLAIM Project

Marine pollution from debris is a major issue nowadays, since every year large amounts of litter enter into the sea. Under the Horizon 2020 framework and within the Cleaning Litter by developing and Applying Innovative Methods in European Seas (CLAIM) project, innovative devices were designed, developed, tested and applied in laboratory and in the field. These consisted of a system named CLEAN TRASH for the prevention of macrolitter in river estuaries before entering the Sea and a filtering system for microplastics (MPs), to be placed at waste water treatment plants (WWTP). Laboratory experiments showed that macrolitters were blocked by 90% by the CLEAN TRASH system, while during the sea testing period at the Kifissos river estuary, a significant source of terrestrial based litter for the Saronikos Gulf, a total amount of 1,175 kg of litter was collected in 38 days before entering the sea, of which the 708 kg (60%) were plastic debris of various sizes and another 164 kg (14%) of styrofoam parts. The lab scale prototype of the filtering system for MPs had an efficiency of about 95%. The upscaled device was tested at the Megara WWTP and was able to withhold a significant amount of MPs. The theoretical contribution of such devices toward the reduction of plastic pollution in the Saronikos Gulf area and the Natura conservation areas therein, was also studied with the use of a 3-D coupled Hydrodynamic-Lagrangian litter tracking model. In all experiments performed, the installation of the above devices for a period of 2 years, resulted in a microplastics reduction by about 87% and a macroplastics reduction ranging from 13 to 43%, depending on the sources.

Assessment of environmental pollution level caused by shipbuilding industry

The purpose of the paper was to create databases that would allow a proper assessment of the degree of marine pollution generated by the shipyard industrial sector. The study was conducted over a period of three years, between 2015 and 2017. The parameters determined for the waters collected from the shipyard were within the maximum allowed limits according to the norms in force. However, values very close to the maximum allowable limit were observed in the case of groundwater for nickel, determined from the drilling located near the fuel depot in 2015 and chlorides determined from the drilling located near the galvanizing workshop, both in 2016 and in 2017. The analyzed parameters for the soil samples, collected from various sampling points and different depths, were below the value of the alert thresholds for less sensitive soils, according to Order 756/97. The databases created for this study can contribute as an incipient basis for the development of larger studies that include other industrial sectors as well as a longer evaluation period.

SPATIAL-TEMPORAL DISTRIBUTION OF POLYCHAETA IN URBANIZED SANDY BEACHES OF NORTHEASTERN BRAZIL: TOOLS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT

In the last years, the use of Polychaeta as indicators of marine pollution has intensified, due to the sensitivity of these organisms to environmental variations and their significant presence in quantitative and qualitative terms when compared to other benthic fauna organisms. We aimed to analyze the Polychaeta assemblage of two urbanized beaches in São Luís – Maranhão (Brazil), focusing on spatial-temporal distribution and look for the relation of the species sampled and possible contamination to indicate if they are suitable for environmental assessment. Sediment collection was carried out in the intertidal zone of both beaches in dry (September and November/2015) and rainy periods (March and May/2016). The samples were screened for extraction of the species, which were classified at the lowest possible taxonomic level. The samples revealed the following taxa: Lumbrineridae (Scoletoma tetraura), Nereididae (Laeonereis culveri) and Spionidae (Scolelepis sp.). The diversity and abundance of Polychaeta were greater on Caolho Beach. On these beaches, organic enrichment is not the determining variable in the structure of the Polychaeta assembly. Other studies are needed to improve the knowledge on other macrofauna species of the studied areas, comparing the richness among microhabitats and seasons, and thus elaborate conservation strategies for these ecosystems; and to test the hypothesis of the influence of tourism on this assemblage.

Coastal HF radars in the Mediterranean: Applications in support of science priorities and societal needs

The Mediterranean Sea is a prominent climate change hot spot, being their socio-economically vital coastal areas the most vulnerable targets for maritime safety, diverse met-ocean hazards and marine pollution. Providing an unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution at wide coastal areas, High-frequency radars (HFRs) have been steadily gaining recognition as an effective land-based remote sensing technology for a continuous monitoring of the surface circulation, increasingly waves and occasionally winds. HFR measurements have boosted the thorough scientific knowledge of coastal processes, also fostering a broad range of applications, which has promoted their integration in the Coastal Ocean Observing Systems worldwide, with more than half of the European sites located in the Mediterranean coastal areas. In this work, we present a review of existing HFR data multidisciplinary science-based applications in the Mediterranean Sea, primarily focused on meeting end-users and science-driven requirements, addressing regional challenges in three main topics: i) maritime safety; ii) extreme hazards; iii) environmental transport process. Additionally, the HFR observing and monitoring regional capabilities in the Mediterranean region required to underpin the underlying science and the further development of applications are also analyzed. The outcome of this assessment has allowed us to finally provide a set of recommendations for the future improvement prospects to maximize the contribution in extending the science-based HFR products into societal relevant downstream services to support the blue growth in the Mediterranean coastal areas, helping to meet the UN’s Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and the EU’s Green Deal goals.

DESIGN OF COMPLETELY AUTOMATIC ODMCS

This paper presents a novel approach for designing a completely automatic Oil Discharge Monitoring and Control System (ODMCS) for the discharge of oily mixtures/effluents from cargo area and slop tank of oil tankers. The Global Positioning System (GPS) and modified World Vector Shorelines (WVS) data are used for the development of a system, which completely automates the working of ODMCS to comply with Marine Pollution (MARPOL) regulations. The system level hardware and software design for the same is discussed. An animated simulator for the completely automatic ODMCS is developed. The developed system may also be used as ODMCS emulator when main ODMCS fails. The results obtained by applying the test inputs to such a system have been presented and verified against the requirements of MARPOL regulations.