Driven by rapid urbanisation, economic development and changing consumption and production patterns, the amount of single-use packaging is rapidly increasing worldwide. At the same time, waste management systems still lack effectiveness in terms of environmentally sound collection, sorting, recycling, energy recovery and disposal of packaging waste.
These trends significantly contribute to marine littering – a growing global threat to marine ecosystems and fisheries, as well as the tourism sector. Marine litter including abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear, affects over 800 species in marine and coastal environments. About 60 to 90% of marine litter consists of plastics, of which much comes from single-use plastic products and packaging.