How much plastic do we throw into the sea? Developing a methodology for mapping and quantifying marine plastics in Peru

Acronym

P_PLASTIMAR

Consortium Coordinator

Kahhat Abedrabbo, Ramzy Francis

Start Date

2019

End Date

2022

Status

https://purl.org/pe-repo/concytec/estadoProyecto#concluido

Description

There is major global concern related to the increasing quantity of plastics released into the ocean; however, little has been done to understand the origins and flows of these materials entering the sea. There are potential environmental impacts linked to the accumulation of plastics in our ocean, such as toxic effects to biodiversity, and although it is important to reduce them, understanding their origins and flows is a key step to avoid further accumulation of this type of marine litter in the sea. Thus, the main objective of this research proposal is to develop a methodology to characterize and quantify the origins and flows of plastics released into the sea generated by anthropogenic activities within a country. Material flow analysis (MFA) has been selected as the main methodological tool to be used in this research. In addition, based on the critical lack of data, different methodological strategies are proposed to interact with MFA. Peru, an emerging economy with an underdeveloped waste management system, has been selected as the case study. Although there are unique characteristics of the selected case study, we argue that the proposed methodology could be replicated in other developing countries. Thus, this project will provide both a methodological guidance on how to map the plastics value chain related to marine plastics and create new knowledge on the transport and distribution pathways as well as on the hotspots of marine litter in the context of a specific case study country. The project will also facilitate the identification of knowledge gaps and potential instruments related to preventing and minimizing marine pollution resulting from waste flows.

Keywords

Contaminación marina

;

Plásticos marinos

;

Cartografía ambiental

;

Cuantificación de residuos

Área de conocimiento

Natural sciences

Campo OCDE

https://purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#1.05.08