International Trash Trap Network Workshop: Asia Pacific

Globally, the contamination of plastic waste in freshwater and marine ecosystems is increasing. We estimate that roughly 30 million tonnes of plastic waste entered aquatic ecosystems in 2020. If we continue business as usual, this number may increase as much as three-fold by 2030. There is no time to waste, and we all must do our part.

The aim of the International Trash Trap Network is to exponentially increase annual cleanup efforts by inspiring groups around the world to trap trash in their local environments, and to link these efforts to quantify our collective impact as part of the International Coastal Cleanup. Trash Traps are technologies and devices that help capture anthropogenic debris from aquatic ecosystems, while collecting data to quantitatively measure our impact. Within this workshop we aim to build local capacity within the Asia Pacific region for trapping trash as part of the solution to the global issue of plastic pollution. We would like to inspire others to trap trash on their waterfronts and to quantify this impact collectively.

Date and Time:

• Workshop will take place on March 16th 2023 from 9am – 2pm GMT+10.

Workshop objectives:

1. To share the value of trash trapping devices and their role in fighting plastic pollution (i.e., plastic pollution prevention and cleanup, measured impact, community outreach).
2. To motivate collaboration among stakeholders (e.g., marinas and NGOs, or port authorities and Universities) to create their own trash trapping projects.
3. To share lessons learned from existing projects to help ensure new collaborations are built upon a successful framework.
4. To build a network of teams working independently toward a common goal with a shared database where both our independent and collaborative impact can be measured and communicated through the International Coastal Cleanup.