Why clean-ups are crucial to stopping marine debris?

Amcor colleagues from Venturina, Italy taking part in the 2019 ICC

The International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) is the world’s largest volunteer action on behalf of our planet’s marine environment. Every year, thousands of Amcor people enthusiastically take part in the ICC, which is organized by one of our sustainability partners, the non-profit organization Ocean Conservancy (OC).

This year we achieved a record level of participation by Amcor colleagues. We doubled the number who took part from last year to an impressive 4,000 people from 99 Amcor sites across 33 countries. Together, we collected more than 27,000kg of waste from waterways, beaches, and parks. With more than 1 million people taking part in the ICC worldwide, the amount of waste taken out of the environment is remarkable.

Gathering global data to protect marine environments

As well as directly improving their local environment and preventing waste entering the oceans, Amcor teams recorded each item of waste collected. The data sheets from each team are sent to the OC, collated with data from around the world, and published in the OC’s annual CleanUp Report.

You can read the 2019 report here, which used 2018 data to identify the top 10 items of waste (cigarettes butts were the most frequent find) and came to a total of more than 97 million items of waste collected thanks to the ICC.

Why picking up waste is critical to preventing marine debris

Packaging plays a vital role in our daily lives. When it is not properly disposed it can enter and damage the natural environment. Research from Ocean Conservancy’s Stemming the Tide Report found that 75% of plastic entering the ocean from land was never collected in the first place – an indicator of the need for more effective collection and waste management infrastructure in many locations.

Marine debris doesn’t just come from beaches. Litter from parks, cities, roadways, and unmanaged dump sites also frequently ends up in our waterways.

This has a detrimental effect on the marine environment, harming or killing wildlife through ingestion or entanglement, risking the spread of disease, and contaminating the oceanic food chain. It also has serious economic impacts, hurting the incomes of small fishers and negatively impacting beach economies that rely on tourism.

Clean-up events like ICC help to remove waste that is already in the environment before it reaches the ocean.

Working with Ocean Conservancy to build long-term solutions

Equally important in the effort to eliminate marine pollution is our work to build waste management systems so that trash never enters the environment in the first place. To this end, Amcor has a global partnership with OC and we actively participate on the Steering Committee of its Trash Free Seas Alliance.

Through this partnership, we collaborate with leaders in industry, conservation, and academia to develop pragmatic, measurable solutions to prevent the flow of waste into the ocean. We share technical and financial support to advance these solutions, including lending our expertise to areas like materials science and industry trends.

We also contributed to developing OC’s Plastics Policy Playbook, which was released in October 2019. This provides guidance to policymakers and the private sector on strategies for achieving a plastic-free ocean. It covers complex topics like financing waste collection, reducing problematic and unnecessary single-use plastics, designing for circularity, developing recycling and treatment markets, and creating policy mechanisms to support these activities.

Work like this is the core foundation upon which the longer-term solution of a circular economy is built. It is what will ultimately create a sustainable way to keep pollution out of the ocean.

The Amcor team from Puducherry, India carrying waste removed from a local beach

How our partnerships target ocean pollution

In addition to our OC partnership, Amcor collaborates with partners that support the development of collection and recycling infrastructure that facilitates a ‘circular’ life for packaging. Our partner organizations like The Recycling Partnership, CEFLEX, MRFF, and Ellen MacArthur Foundation and its New Plastics Economy Global Commitment are all focused on creating different parts of the solution.

We also support policies that enable better collection and recycling infrastructure. Because while Amcor is focused on innovating packaging that is “designed for recycling”, it will only be recycled if functional, accessible waste management infrastructure is in place, and consumers play their vital role in the system too.

With a strong system for collecting and recycling materials, and active consumer participation, there is less chance of packaging finding its way into the environment and more opportunity to recapture the valuable materials it contains.

Related read: UN World Oceans Day 2019: Interview with Eric DesRoberts from Ocean Conservancy

Amcor colleagues from Singapore logging each piece of waste collected

How can we continue to tackle waste pollution?

Preventing waste from entering our oceans requires action from individuals and organizations. Each of us can play a part to prevent waste in the environment between now and International Coastal Cleanup 2020.

Think about the things you have direct control over and start there:

• picking up any litter you see out and about
• understanding your local recycling infrastructure and sorting waste at home correctly
• buying recyclable and reusable packaging, and avoiding single-use items like plastic bags, straws and cutlery
• engaging with local clean-up initiatives.

And as the world’s largest packaging company, we’re playing an active role in better protecting the environment – you can learn more about our partnership with Ocean Conservancy and Amcor’s other sustainability initiatives in the 2019 Sustainability Report.

Thank you to everyone that got involved with the clean-up this year. We’re aiming for an even greater number of Amcor participants in 2020, which will mean even more trash is collected and kept away from the marine environment.