Action Theme: Theme A: Actions to reduce land-based sources of marine litter
Action number: A.4.1
Action Title: Define measures and strategies for the phasing out or restriction of use of single use plastics prone to become marine litter in complement to the EU SUP Directive
Lead Party(ies): France and Seas at Risk with support from Denmark and Netherlands
Image: ©Shutterstock
What is the issue?
Single use plastic (SUP) items, including those not yet covered by the EU SUP Directive, such as balloons, shotgun wads and cartridges, fireworks and others, are not collected in an efficient way and are prone to becoming marine litter. The use of these SUPs needs to be reduced, restricted, redesigned or phased-out and alternatives found.
What has OSPAR done?
In this action, OSPAR will support the progressive phasing-out or restriction of use of single-use plastics that are not included in the EU SUP Directive or insufficiently covered to date. In addition, the task will promote the identification and use of sustainable alternatives. Plastic free and reusable alternatives are considered as the best way to reduce marine litter, as recyclable and biodegradable alternatives do not reduce pollution nor impacts. This will be accomplished by evaluating current EU legislation, sharing experience and details on national strategy on the implementation of the SUP Directive and encourage non-EU MS to take similar actions.
Final outputs and published reports
This work aims to deliver outputs that will inform the revision of the EU SUP Directive in 2026 and will include:
- a GAP analysis on items/topics that theSUP-D does not cover;
- Sharing national strategies to implement these solutions.
