Together with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Maritime Organization has launched a new global project to prevent and reduce marine plastic litter from shipping with initial funding from the Government of Norway. The GloLitter Partnerships Project aims to help shipping and fisheries move to a low-plastics future and identify opportunities to re-use and recycle plastics. Just earlier this week a sperm whale that stranded and then died on a beach in Scotland had about 100 kilograms of nets, bundles of rope, plastic cups, bags, gloves, packing straps and tubing in its stomach. The world’s oceans now contain an estimated 100 million tonnes of plastic, about 80 to 90 per cent of it from land-based sources, reports the United Nations Environment Programme. In May, 180 countries around the world reached a deal that aims to sharply reduce the amount of plastic that gets washed into the world’s oceans.
