“Wave Goodbye to Plastic Pollution: A Journey from Source to Sea” Webinar

Webinar “Wave Goodbye to Plastic Pollution: A Journey from Source to Sea”12 November 20243:00 pm – 4:30 pm Bangkok time / 9:00 am - 10:30 am CET Register here Background and objectives Plastic pollution is a major global transboundary issue that poses severe risks to marine wildlife, coastal ecosystems, human health, and livelihoods (Marks et al., 2020). Especially, plastic pollution has been disproportionately dispersed in freshwater systems and the ocean when it leaks from land-based sources such as inadequate solid and liquid waste management systems or agricultural run-off (Mathews et al., 2022). Additionally, research illustrates that floods significantly amplify the transport and accumulation of macroplastics in rivers, with extreme discharge events dramatically increasing plastic transport rates. This reveals that rivers function as both conduits and reservoirs for plastic pollution, with localized dispersal and entrapment limiting broader river-scale movement (Van Emmerik et al., 2023). In this way, plastic pollution is a transboundary issue locally, regionally, and globally. With this background, monitoring and evaluating transboundary plastic pollution is important for understanding the sources and impacts of plastic pollution. Effective monitoring provides critical data on plastic sources, distribution, and impacts, enabling targeted interventions and policy formulation. By evaluating how plastic pollution flows through various environments, stakeholders can better address the complexities of this urgent issue and develop effective and efficient solutions and strategies. Effective interventions are urgently needed to reduce the flow of plastic into rivers and the ocean. By adopting holistic, coordinated and collaborative management strategies based on sound data, we can reduce plastic pollution. Source-to-sea management enhances these efforts by emphasizing the connections between land, freshwater systems, coasts, and the ocean. This approach acknowledges that actions in one area affect the entire system, aiming to improve management and sustainability across these interconnected environments, or in other words across the source-to-sea continuum. The Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) has been at the forefront of developing and piloting the source-to-sea approach with a particular focus on plastic pollution since 2019. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been working on monitoring and evaluating plastic pollution, particularly in river systems, and actively promotes discussions on effective plastic management strategies. Leveraging the strengths and synergies between SIWI and UNEP, this webinar will focus on two main objectives: Discussing the assessment and monitoring of transboundary plastic pollution in river systems, incorporating a source-to-sea approach to provide a comprehensive understanding.Exploring plastic management solutions specifically designed to address transboundary plastic pollution based on a source-to-sea approach