Disposable plastics are particularly targeted because they are used and disposed of on board cruise ships, and AECO is also improving its passenger-based beach cleaning operations and providing information on ways to prevent plastic pollution from the seas. AECO also supports Clean Seas by encouraging its voluntary beach clean-up for passengers who have already experienced success: as a result of AECO`s clean-up efforts in Spitsbergen Every summer, around 20 tonnes of waste are removed from Svalbard`s beaches. Its mission is to take the lead and encourage partnerships to care for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without harming future generations. Island authorities have introduced laws to ban disposable items like straws and bags. Volunteers and fishermen helped clean up secluded beaches, while waste management services were strengthened. "Governments are regulating single-use plastics by adopting several bans, and citizens are taking action through massive purges and campaigns. But we need more effort from the industry to find innovative alternatives to plastic," Heileman said. In fact, each cruise ship removes between three and four tons of waste per season. During the 2017-18 Arctic season, 128 beach cleanups were organized, reducing more than 40 tons of waste. Tens of thousands of people have visited our cleanseas.org site to learn more, while thousands of people #CleanSeas and #beatpollution use on Twitter and Instagram to tag beach cleanup images and invite their friends and followers to join the fight against marine litter. Global measures and initiatives have been taken to address the problem of marine pollution. Since its launch in June 2012 at Rio+20 in Brazil, the Global Partnership on Marine Litter (GPML) has brought together international organizations, governments, academia, the private sector, civil society and individuals. The Honolulu Strategy is a framework for global and comprehensive cooperation to reduce the environmental, human and economic impact of marine litter worldwide.

At its second meeting, the Environment Assembly (UNA) adopted resolution 2/11 on plastic waste and marine microplastics, which emphasizes the prevention and minimization of such waste, as well as environmentally friendly waste management and clean-up systems. That`s why Clean Seas` work is far from over. Continued growth in the countryside is necessary to ensure that we do not suffocate the seas (and ourselves) in our own out-of-control creation. Such purges are in good company with mass efforts like those of Ocean Cleanup, which has taken on the impressive and Herculean task of removing half of Alaska`s large carpet of Pacific garbage over the next five years. Nearly 90,000 people have made a #CleanSeas promise to remove single-use plastics and micropers from their lives. From Bali to Panama, they clean beaches, catalog what they find and change their own behavior, for example by using cloth bags and carrying steel cups or cutlery, refusing plastic straws and requesting the removal of plastic cups or disposable bottles from their offices. "Our goal is to redefine the world`s relationship with plastics, as it is the only way to save our seas. Only by radically changing the way we consume can we secure the oceans that preserve human life," said Erik Solheim, Executive Director of UN Environment. What we need is a revolution. For example, the ocean cleanup team already mentioned is working hard to fine-tune a huge sea cleaning machine that uses waves, currents, and winds to operate. . . .