WASHINGTON, DC – The following statement was issued by Nicholas Mallos, director of Ocean Conservancy’s Trash Free Seas Program, in response to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy initiative call for a ban on oxo-degradable plastic packaging:

“Ocean Conservancy believes that systemic changes must be made to solve the monumental problem of marine debris, including improving waste collection and management in key geographies and incentivizing global consumers and industry leaders to move toward a circular economy.

“Oxo-degradable plastics hamper these solutions because they encourage the production of single-use packaging and do not fully degrade biologically but rather break up into smaller and smaller pieces of microplastic, which have been found to have significant impacts on the health of ocean wildlife ranging from coral and shellfish to fish and whales.

“Ocean Conservancy supports the Ellen MacArthur Foundations’ New Plastics Economy initiative to ban oxo-degradable plastic packaging and is pleased to see that Ocean Conservancy partners like PepsiCo as well as members of the Trash Free Seas® Alliance like the World Wildlife Fund have signed on.”

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Nicholas Mallos is available for interviews upon request.

NOTE TO EDITORS:

• At the Our Ocean 2017 conference in October, Ocean Conservancy and its partners, including the Trash Free Seas Alliance®, Closed Loop Partners, PepsiCo, 3M, Procter & Gamble, the American Chemistry Council, and the World Plastics Council announced an initiative to raise over $150 million for a new funding mechanism to prevent plastic waste from leaking in to our ocean.

Ocean Conservancy is working to protect the ocean from today’s greatest global challenges. Together with our partners, we create science-based solutions for a healthy ocean and the wildlife and communities that depend on it. For more information, visit oceanconservancy.org, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.