Talking Trash: The Development of International Legal Governance Over Marine Plastic Pollution

Increasing amounts of marine plastic pollution entering into the ocean endangers the lives of sea animals, harms the health of human seafood consumers, degrades the marine ecosystem, and contributes to climate change. Despite these consequences, there remains no international legally binding treaty that is solely devoted towards mitigating marine plastic pollution. While there are current treaties in place that have created some regulations to control the entrance of marine plastics into the ocean, none have achieved significant reduction and prevention of the issue due to flaws such as weak enforcement mechanisms and lenient restrictions on ocean dumping. Thus, this research paper intends to examine established global treaties that regulate marine plastic pollution in some form by recognizing their flaws so that it becomes clear why they have failed to make major progress towards solving this environmental issue. Additionally, this paper will expand upon international legal progress that is currently being demonstrated in the creation of UN Resolution 5/14, which intends to develop a legally binding treaty to mitigate marine plastic pollution and fill the gaps of past treaties.