Clean-Ups or Clean-Washing?

How plastic pollution cleanup technology can actually harm the environment and obstruct policy progress

As the production and use of plastics has increased exponentially, so have the concerns around the pollution plastics cause on human and environmental health. As the world begins to confront this crisis, one solution that has gained a lot of attention are clean-up technologies.

This report from the Environmental Investigation Agency and OceanCare highlights major concerns around quick-fix technological solutions to cleaning up plastics in our oceans, ranging from their impact on the environment to the distraction from genuine policy solutions. It provides recommendations to policymakers negotiating the new global plastics treaty for how to ensure that clean-up are conducted in a way that puts people and planet first. First and foremost the report highlights that we cannot do the clean-up without stopping the source.