Coastal Restoration

Indonesia has been in hot water over its contribution to marine waste since 2015, when a report by researcher Jenna Jambeck ranked Indonesia as the world’s second-worst marine plastic polluter for allowing about 1.29 million tons of plastic waste to enter the ocean in 2010 as a result of improper waste management.

The government has been working to prevent waste from ending up in the ocean, including by building the country’s recycling industry. 

But the efforts still have a long way to go. Many say the country’s ineffective waste management practices have held the recycling industry back.

California lawmakers are weighing three bills to phase out single-use plastic containers and address the state's recycling crisis. But industry opposition looms.

But as governments and consumers fret about the damage plastic is doing to the world's oceans, scientists are experimenting by converting materials from cactus to shrimp shells and human waste into alternative greener plastics. Based in Michoacan state at the centre of Mexico's avocado industry, the world's largest, BIOFASE uses tonnes of stones a day discarded by processors of the fruit to produce its drinking straws and cutlery. Industry experts say bioplastics - which are made with renewable, organic materials - have twin benefits: making use of waste to create products that are potentially quicker and easier to dispose of than traditional fossil fuel-based plastics. But not all bioplastics are as environmentally friendly as they sound, say scientists and industry insiders. Some contain high levels of traditional plastic, and depending on their uses and components, may not be biodegradable or compostable, making disposal a challenge. Plastic production is expected to double over the next 20 years, compounding worries over the 8 million to 15 million tonnes of plastic the United Nations says are already being dumped into the ocean each year.

Danish offshore support vessel operator Maersk Supply Service will continue providing marine support to The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit engineering and environmental organization working to rid oceans of plastic pollution.

The Ocean Cleanup’s mission is to develop advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. To achieve this goal, the company's aim to stop the inflow via rivers and clean up what has already accumulated in the ocean. Its ultimate goal is reaching a 90% reduction of floating ocean plastic by 2040.

Pushes to “recycle” plastics are one element of a massive industry-led effort to suppress meaningful efforts to reduce plastic waste.