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Top1. Introduction
Globally, legislation has emerged to reduce unsightly marine debris. Plastic is the most common and abundant component of marine debris (Ocean Conservancy & International Coastal Cleanup, 2021; Serra-Gonçalves et al., 2019), and widespread mismanagement of plastic waste is contributing to rising concern about the issue. Microplastics (“MPs”, < 5 mm in size) are less conspicuous than larger debris, yet they pose a more insidious threat at all levels of the food chain. International management of plastic pollution initially focused on marine-based debris, including the London Convention, International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), MARPOL Annex V, and Honolulu Strategy (Agamuthu et al., 2019); the latter and the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Waste and their Disposal also address land-based debris (Guggisberg, 2024). Currently, negotiations within the United Nations are ongoing to finalize an internationally binding instrument on plastic pollution including MPs (“Global Plastics Treaty”). This treaty is highly anticipated within the marine debris community, which looks forward to progress via enforceable reductions in the flow of plastic waste into the oceans. Potential enforceable mechanisms in the draft treaty include banning certain hazardous chemicals and intentionally added MPs in plastic products, eliminating problematic, avoidable single-use plastics, recycled content requirements, and Extended Producer Responsibility systems (United Nations Environment Programme, 2024). However, reduction measures are in short supply compared to the steadily increasing manufacture and distribution of plastic products (da Costa et al., 2020; Gourmelon, 2015).
National plastic bans, bottle return deposits, and regulations on marine debris have been implemented around the world (Agamuthu et al., 2019; Rose, 2020; Xanthos & Walker, 2017). Other federal frameworks in the United States also offer opportunities for addressing different aspects of plastic pollution, such as the Commerce Clause (King, 2019), zoning ordinances (Watts, 2022), or the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) (for detailed discussions of additional policies and proposed modifications of plastic waste-related regulations at the USA federal level that are not covered in this review, readers are referred to Sorensen et al. (2022), The National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine (2022), and Environmental Law Institute & Monterey Bay Aquarium (2024)). However, shortcomings of plastic intervention policy at national, regional, or state levels may in part be attributed to inconsistent implementation within and between jurisdictions (Dauvergne, 2018; Guggisberg, 2024; Wang et al., 2022). Recycling is a quintessential example of this discontinuous management issue. In the US, recycling is largely decentralized with general federal guidance to encourage state recycling programs (see the Draft National Recycling Strategy; US Environmental Protection Agency, 2020). Thus, recycling programs vary widely between states, and accepted materials for collection vary even between counties and cities, as is the case in the State of Florida.