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OpenOceans Global News
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OpenOceans partners with MITRE. OpenOceans Global and MITRE are partnering to integrate OpenOceans’ map-based, pathways approach to ocean plastic with the technologies available through MITRE. MITRE is a billion-dollar not-for-profit corporation dedicated to solving problems for a safer world. The organization is committed to the public interest, operating federally funded R&D centers on behalf of U.S. government sponsors.
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MITRE partnership leads to consortia invitation. As part of its partnership with MITRE, OpenOceans is now part of two technology consortia – the Environmental Intelligence for Decision Advantage (EIDA) and the 3-C for Ocean AI initiative, a program that, among other technologies, is pioneering underwater digital twins in the ocean. Consortia members include Nvidia, Atomic Maps, CESIUM, Sofar, and Esri. Being part of these consortia allows access to MITRE’s Nvidia-technology-driven Immersion Lab, digital sandbox, and other tools and expertise.
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Come say "Hi" at the Esri User Conference. OpenOceans Global will be attending the annual Esri User Conference in San Diego July 14-18. Our POPP dashboard (see Deeper Dive below) will be featured in the Map Gallery (Board #C-904), We would love to meet you. Come say "Hi" at the reception in the Map Gallery after Monday's plenary.
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Paul M. Angell Family Foundation grant to accelerate OpenOceans’ work. OpenOceans Global has received a generous general operating grant from the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation. OpenOceans thanks the foundation and is grateful for its support. The foundation’s conservation program supports organizations, projects, and programs that conserve and protect marine biodiversity. One of the areas of focus is ending plastic pollution.
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In This Issue: (links to articles below)
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Did you know?
Of the 1,000 rivers contributing 80% of riverine plastic to the ocean, only one is in the U.S. The Delaware River deposits 128 metric tons of plastic into the ocean each year.
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Taking a Deeper Dive
OpenOceans develops Pathways of Ocean Plastic Pollution prototype
The Pathways of Ocean Plastic Pollution dashboard. Image credit: Esri ArcGIS Online / OpenOceans Global
Utilizing data from the San Diego area, ArcGIS Online, and the Living Atlas, OpenOceans has completed a dashboard, toolkit, and predictive model that defines and maps each beach and shoreline within a region and creates a visual understanding of how plastic might travel to that shoreline. Called the Pathways of Ocean Plastic Pollution (POPP), the Esri Geographic Information System (GIS) dashboard includes geospatial methods to plot individual beaches while highlighting rivers, storm drain outlets, watershed regions that drain to beaches, illegal trash dumps, etc. The dashboard also includes access to ocean current observations that indicate how plastic might have migrated from other areas.
Because 75% of ocean plastic is located on a beach or another shoreline, those coastal areas are an appropriate proxy for ocean plastic pollution. Below are the elements OpenOceans has assembled to identify these pathways and to help local and regional stakeholders using the dashboard to find and stop the leaks of plastic into the environment before it reaches the ocean:
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Watershed data allows dashboard users to click on the name of a beach and see what watershed affects that beach, including, where available, storm drains, flow lines (intermittent streams), and rivers.
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The Trace Downstream tool allows users to follow the source of a contaminant downstream. Visualizations of ocean currents are also available to help identify which river(s) might have contributed plastic to a shoreline.
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A Plastic tracing tool (PTT) determines how ocean plastic might have reached a given shoreline from an offshore source, including from fishing operations.
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A digital library of solutions to help users of the POPP toolkit find solutions that have been implemented in other parts of the world.
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Stakeholders. Organizations that own the beach, maintain the beach, or clean up the beach are listed by beach.
OpenOceans is implementing a POPP technology pilot in Ecuador.
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Tracking Plastic News
Quotable
“After living for nearly 100 years on this planet, I now understand the most important place on earth is not on land, but at sea. If we save the sea, we save our world." - David Attenborough
Image credit: Mark Lynch
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Glass bottles found to contain more microplastics than plastic bottles, PHYS.ORG, June 20, 2025
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Microplastics Focus May Force Change In Biz Practices, LAW360, June 20, 2025
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The Rocks Beneath Your Feet Are Younger Than Your Parents and Made of Your Trash, Popular Mechanics, June 19, 2025
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Plastic bag bans and fees reduce harmful bag litter on shorelines, Science, June 19, 2025
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Living near an ocean polluted by microplastics may increase cardiometabolic disease risk, MedicalXpress, June 18, 2025
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Plastics threaten ecosystems and human health, but evidence-based solutions are under political fire, PHYS.ORG, June 18, 2025
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Plastics proposals fail at Walmart, but green plan wins much more support, Plastics News, June 12, 2015
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SpaceX rocket debris litters Mexico beach, threatens environment, AccuWeather, June 9, 2025
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The climate cost of mistrust: Study finds Israel's Plastic Tax policy backfires in traditional communities, PHYS.ORG, June 5, 2025
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Fishing and camping trip takes sad turn with 50kg find under sand: 'We couldn't leave it', Yahoo!News, May 29, 2025
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2 teens won $50,000 for inventing a device that can filter toxic microplastics from water, Business Insider, May 23, 2025
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Will a policy change mean more plastic trash at national parks? Plastics News, May 23, 2025
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Help Locate Plastic-Fouled Coastlines
Each month we share an image of a beach fouled by plastic. To report a shoreline pervasively fouled by significant amounts of plastic debris, use our online plastic trash reporting app. Thank you!
This Month’s Coastal Hotspot: Carenage Beach, Trinidad and Tobago
Image credit: loop
The location of Carenage Beach (red dot on the left). Image credit: Esri ArcGIS Online / OpenOceans Global
Carenage Beach in Trinidad and Tobago is one of the many beaches in the country that are perennially fouled by plastic. According to a 2024 United Nations report, Trinidad and Tobago is heavily dependent on imports and receives tonnes of plastic every day. "In Trinidad alone, around 129,000 metric tonnes of plastic waste are brought into the country every year. "Trinidad has limited resources to treat the waste, which directly affects tourism and fishing, two important elements of the country’s economy," according to the UN. An article in loop reported that the government has made efforts to clamp down on littering and illegal dumping. In 2019, 147 litter wardens were recruited to deal with these issues. In addition, anti-litter legislation passed in 1973 calls for a fine of $4,000 or imprisonment for six months and $8,000 for corporations that violate the act. These efforts have not yet achieved the needed results. According to Newsday, less than one percent of plastic waste is recycled in T&T.
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Solutions to the Ocean Plastic Crisis
See more solutions on our ocean plastic solutions page. Have a solution we should know about? Submit it here.
This Month's Featured Solution: Envac - Vacuum Tubes for Waste Collection
Image credit: Nicolas Rivero/The Washington Post
Bergen, a coastal city in Norway, is implementing an innovative pneumatic waste collection system built by Envac that uses underground vacuum tubes to transport trash and recycling to collection centers. According to the Washington Post, “Some cities, including Stockholm, Seoul and Doha, Qatar, require or encourage developers to install trash tubes in large new construction projects. But Bergen stands out in that it has sought to retrofit its centuries-old neighborhoods with a citywide automated trash collection system.” The Envac system removes garbage trucks in crowded city centers, improves street cleanliness, and decreases traffic congestion and emissions. Residents sort and dispose of their waste into inlets that are connected to a network of underground pipes. Powerful fans suck waste through pipes at high speeds to collection stations located up to two kilometers away where waste is sorted, compacted, and prepared for further processing. Systems include sensors and data analysis for optimized waste collection and smart recycling. Cleaner streets also help keep trash out of storm drains, reducing the amount of unintentional waste reaching the sea. Envac first introduced its system in a Swedish hospital in 1961.
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Meet the Experts and Leaders
OpenOceans Global is identifying ocean plastic experts from around the world. Here is an expert leading efforts to reduce plastic pollution that you should know about.
Elizabeth McCauley, Lead Producer, Business Insider
Image credit:Elizabeth McCauley
Elizabeth McCauley is a lead producer at Business Insider, specializing in in-depth environmental reporting. McCauley’s reporting on plastic goes to the heart of the truth about a complex subject. Her September 26, 2024, video documentary, You're Being Lied To About Ocean Plastic, dives deep into the misperceptions that abound in the media. From the myth of the plastic island to the role of littering and recycling, McCauley sets the record straight. Some of her other plastic-pollution-related stories include Sungai Watch, a nonprofit removing plastic from Indonesia’s rivers, and Blueview Footwear, the first truly biodegradable sneaker. These stories and others are fact-based and understandable. McCauley has a BA in both Economics and Media Studies from the University of Virginia.
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