Our Board Director Mr Chandraratne Vithanage and Programme Manager, Roshan Salinda attended the world’s longest-running international conference series dedicated to the issue of marine litter and plastic pollution recently. IMDC is well-recognized as a platform for bringing together governments, industry, academia, civil society, and all relevant stakeholders to discuss the latest science, strengthen collaborations, find solutions and catalyze action to address the urgent, global problem of marine litter and plastic pollution.
The 7IMDC was held with the participation of 760 people physically, and 183 people virtually from 89 countries. The Conference had 110 sessions under 9 technical tracks, namely Monitoring, Research, Technology & Innovation, Education, Awareness & Communication, Regulation, Laws & Policy, Circularity & Waste Management, Economics, Financing & Private Sector Engagement, Sea-based Sources, and International Collaborations. There were 564 presentations and 234 posters, generating more than 130 hours of substantive content for consumption. To connect with each other, there were many opportunities and medium available throughout the conference. These include 7IMDC App, networking events such as social events and luncheons, and the Global Partnership on Marine Little (GPML) digital platform. It was inspiring to interact and see the energy of a global like-minded, passionate, rapidly growing community to tackle the marine plastic issue. The sense of purpose was noticeable among speakers to inform and drive solutions and actions while continuing to do more research on marine litter.
The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) and Biodiversity Sri Lanka (BSL) made a joint presentation on the Sri Lankan EPR Journey on Plastics Waste to this international audience in session 5.1 titled non-state actors in governance solutions to plastic pollution. The participants were appreciative of the work carried out and suggested that Sri Lanka can generate a blueprint for industry-led volunteer EPR programs in South Asia.
The knowledge gained and connections made from 7IMDC will be extremely important for both CCC and BSL to expand and enrich joint EPR efforts.
