OSPAR is working to “substantially reduce marine litter in the OSPAR maritime area to levels where properties and quantities do not cause harm to the marine environment” by 2020. To fulfil this goal, OSPAR agreed a Regional Action Plan, Plan for Prevention and Management of Marine Litter in the North-East Atlantic, with 55 actions, for the period 2014-2021.

In its implementation plan, the RAP includes 32 common actions are currently being developed by the
OSPAR Contracting Parties. These include 4 major themes

 Actions to combat sea-based sources of marine litter
 Actions to combat land-based sources of Marine Litter
 Removal Action
 Education and Outreach

Additionally, 23 actions have been identified, which may be taken at the national level by Contracting
Parties to implement the RAP.

On OceanWise and the OSPAR RAP:
One of the RAP actions for ‘Elimination, change or adaptation of the products for environmental benefits’ is
action 49, which is focused exclusively on the impact of EPS:

Action 49: Investigate the prevalence and impact of expanded polystyrene (EPS) in the marine environment,
and engage with industry to make proposals for alternative materials and/or how to reduce its impacts.

The development of the OSPAR RAP action 49 is being led by DGRM (lead Partner of OceanWise) with the
support of DHPLG (Partner of the OceanWise).

 ‘OSPAR Marine Litter Action Plan’ >>