Since 2015, the importance of marine ecosystems has been highlighted inSustainable Development Goal (SDGs) No. 14, which emphasizes the needto ‘Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources forsustainable development.’ A constant stream of alarming facts demonstratesthat the sustainability of our oceans is under severe threat from acidification,ocean warming, eutrophication, fisheries collapses and, most notably, marineplastic pollution while over 3 billion people, or 42% of the global population,rely on oceans for their livelihoods. Marine plastic litter has become a seriousglobal issue due to the fact that about 10 million metric tons of plastic wastegenerated on land enters the marine environment annually, contaminatingmajor river basins and oceans. Plastics are also difficult to biodegrade and sometypes are non-degradable, resulting in accumulation rather than decompositionof plastics in the environment. One estimate predicts that by 2050, the weightof plastic waste in the ocean will be greater than the weight of fish. For thisreason, in March 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly adopted aresolution entitled, ‘End Plastic Pollution’ related to the marine environment,and negotiations for an internationally legally binding instrument will beginfrom the second half of 2022 onward.
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