Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of ocean plastic is found on coastlines (below the high tide line), and most of that reaches the ocean via rivers. OpenOceans Global is a nonprofit organization based in San Diego, California focused on mapping the coastlines persistently fouled by plastic to provide a globally visual context to the problem.
In addition, OpenOceans Global is also curating and categorizing the best solutions to the ocean plastic crisis. These solutions range from global collaborations, to innovative recycling processes, to technologies that can simply intercept the plastic in rivers and streams before it can reach the ocean.
While much of the work on ocean plastic has rightly focused on the producer and consumer (don't make it, don't buy it or use it), OpenOceans Global believes an immediate step that can be taken is to prioritize the places where the most plastic reaches the ocean, determine the source, and provide the the experts and the leaders for each location with the best known solutions to address that source.
While the all-important and encouraging efforts move forward to create an international plastic treaty, the plastic still flows. The Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ in their July 2020 landmark report, Breaking the Plastic Wave, estimated that 11 million metric tons of plastic reaches the ocean now and, by 2040, 29 million metric tons will reach the ocean with current practices in place. The Pew report provides an excellent and comprehensive list of what needs to done. That list requires billions of dollars in government investment and trillions of dollars in business investment. Even if all the countries with coastlines and all the businesses involved do everything Pew recommends, only 78% of the plastic flows to the ocean will be stopped, a number that is nearly equal to the amount of plastic reaching the ocean only a few years ago.
As the research on ocean plastic emerges, the world is learning that 84% of river-borne ocean plastic comes from Brazil and nine countries in Asia. 70% comes from five countries in Asia, and 36% comes from the Philippines alone. Wouldn't it make sense to focus on these primary sources of plastic to the ocean, even while a global plastic treaty is being forged and best practices like those recommended by Pew are implemented? OpenOceans Global is confident that once the places where ocean plastic accumulates on coastlines are identified and visualized, the effort, interest and funding will emerge to address those locations and sources now, even while the issue is being addressed globally.
Finally, OpenOceans Global is addressing the difficulty of communicating across timezones and distance by providing a 24/7 virtual meeting space, where experts and leaders can convene simply and easily. Called Talk Space, this virtual meeting center contains everything from a lobby, to breakout rooms, to a theater with seating for up to 5,000. This space for informal and formal gatherings is the final pillar in our strategy to link together the global plastic experts and leaders.