U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler releases the U.S Federal Strategy for Addressing the Global Issues of Marine Litter at an event at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Fla. At the announcement, Administrator Wheeler was joined by U.S. Congressman Brian Mast (FL-18), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Deputy Secretary Mark M. Menezes, White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Chairman Mary Neumayr, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere (NOAA) and Deputy National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Administrator Tim Gallaudet and EPA Region 4 Administrator Mary Walker.
“Internationally, up to 28 billion pounds of waste makes it into our oceans every year, harming marine life and coastal economies,” says Wheeler. “Marine litter is a top priority for this Administration, and working together with our global partners, we aim to solve the current growing marine litter problem in our shared oceans.”
The strategy highlights the federal government’s four pillars for tacking the issue of marine litter: (1) building capacity, (2) incentivizing the global recycling market, (3) promoting research and development, (4) promoting marine litter removal. It also identifies existing U.S. legal authorities and federal programs already underway, such as EPA’s Trash Free Waters program.
President Trump’s FY21 Budget proposes over $7 million for EPA to address marine litter domestically and internationally through a multiple year budget proposal. The same proposal was included in the FY22 President’s Budget. The funding would allow EPA to expand the international Trash Free Waters program to large source countries, which are located in southeast Asia. The funding would also allow the expansion of the domestic trash free waters program allowing for even more domestic place-based projects.
For more information, visit: www.epa.gov