Equality in Marine Debris Prevention

Huge amounts of consumer trash and other discarded items enter the environment every day making marine debris and plastic pollution one of the most widespread problems facing the world’s oceans, waterways, and communities. Californians have a long-standing commitment to addressing and preventing marine debris and trash pollution, including the cross-sector, community-driven implementation of the “2018-2024 California Ocean Litter Prevention Strategy (OLS): Addressing Marine Debris from Source to Sea.”  A partnership between the California Ocean Protection Council, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Debris Program (MDP) and California Sea Grant has overseen the implementation of the Strategy by bringing stakeholders together to collaboratively work toward six goals: source reduction; changes in product design; waste management and land-based interventions; research; behavior change; and ocean-based debris prevention and clean-up.

While community engagement in the OLS has been high and varied across sectors, the planning team recognizes that success cannot be achieved without including and acting on the needs and priorities of those who have historically been marginalized and are often the most overburdened by pollution. This project seeks to improve the representation and involvement from the communities aimed to be directly served by the Strategy, including under-resourced communities and California tribes who are overburdened by trash pollution. 

Through funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, California Sea Grant, University of Southern California Sea Grant, and the California Ocean Protection Council have been awarded a project to achieve two goals:  Identify, engage and assess the needs of local communities, groups and sectors missing from the OLS program; and establish a California OLS Funding in Equity Action Coalition to inform coordinated investments in community-based marine debris solutions. Objectives will be accomplished through a statewide stakeholder analysis of the OLS participation and engagement, localized needs assessment in Los Angeles (a region with a particularly great pollution burden), and formation of a coalition of agencies and private funders who will provide financial and technical advising support to overburdened communities to help address trash and plastic pollution. 

This project aims to increase the social and financial capital of under-resourced communities and will inform the remaining two years of implementation of the 2018-2024 OLS, as well as future renditions of the OLS. This will ensure that the strategy, OLS community, and supporting resources are well-informed, inclusive and effective. Overall, this project is designed to complement and inform a strategic state effort to effectively address trash and plastic pollution in urban waterways and offer opportunities to advance ocean litter solutions that simultaneously benefit the health of low-income and disadvantaged communities.