Adaptation Measures: Legal Frameworks

Hello all!

In this post, I would be talking about how we may reduce negative externalities from plastic bags. Although there have been many abovementioned suggested measures, some technological measures have been well-discussed by a colleague (eg. Seabins, The Ocean Cleanup), and I would therefore choose to focus on the common measures - legal frameworks and beach cleanups.

Legal Frameworks

One agreement that has been particularly relevant for the control of plastic pollution is the London Convention 1972, later ratified as the London Protocol 1996. The former Convention aimed to control marine pollution by establishing a black-grey list approach to wastes, where items on the black list were prohibited from dumping and items on the grey list required a special permit before dumping could be carried out. The Protocol tightened the prevention of pollution even further by adopting a "reverse list", implying that all dumping is prohibited except otherwise indicated on the reverse list with a special permit. Incineration and export of waste products at sea were also disallowed. Both these frameworks indicate the prevention of dumping of plastics, and the ratification of the Protocol among states represent their move towards environmental consciousness. Extracted examples of these lists are seen in Table 4.

Table 4: Black-grey list of London Convention 1972, and reverse list of London Protocol 1996.

Legal Frameworks	Item lists
London Convention 1972	Black list - Organohalogen compounds - Mercury and mercury compunds - Cadmium and cadmium compounds - Persistent plastics and other persistent synthetic materials* - Crude oil Grey list - Wastes containing matter such as arsenic, chromium, copper, lead (more in Annex II). - Containers, scrap metal and bulky wastes
London Protocol 1996	Reverse list - Sewage sludge - Fish waste, or material from fish processing operations - Vessels and platforms or other man-made structures at sea - Dredged material - Organic matter of natural origin - Inert, inorganic geological material - Carbon dioxide from capture processes for sequestration

There is great difficulty in obtaining dumping permits - (a) waste management audit to minimise the amount of waste to be dumped, (b) review all other modes of disposal including reuse and recycle before disposal, and (c) to consider for disposal on land before sea disposal, and these mean that sea dumping would be minimised. To ensure that parties comply with the protocol, it is essential for all parties to submit regular reports on dumping activities; unfortunately, the overwhelming efforts required mean that countries often opt out in favour of their continued convenience. Enforcement is also tough as curbing illegal dumping remains a challenge from the vast expanse of the unmonitored ocean waters.

On the bright side, I read a related article on a suggested local action plan for Singapore (where I come from) to reduce its marine trash and remedy its ugly shorelines following these global frameworks, arguably a nationalistic measure which may be more useful to encourage compliance within a country's own territorial waters.

In my next post, I will then talk briefly about beach cleanups. See you!