| dc.description.abstract | Plastic has been widely used in vast volume all over the world for decades, and the plastic waste has caused many environment problems globally, among which the leakage of plastic into the ocean has been particularly worrisome in recent years for its lasting impacts on ecosystems and humans. Although the attention on ocean plastics has been intensified, there has been a lack of a comprehensive, feasible, fixable and unified quantitative estimation and evaluation method.
In 2019, the National Guidance for Plastic Pollution Hotspotting and Shaping Action (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Guidance’) was co-developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) with technical support of Environmental Action (EA) and Quantis, which has been implemented in 7 pilots from 3 continents (status 2021 February), proving to be viable, adaptable and versatile.
In this thesis, based on the published pilot reports and the method designed by the Guidance, a cross-comparison of completed pilot country studies and a case study of Norway are conducted. The results show that a great number of leakage hotspots like packaging, tires and textiles occur universally in various pilot countries as well as in Norway, and management and control of these hotspots still needs to be strengthened purposefully in order to alleviate the ocean plastic crisis. | |
