Our role in a global agenda

Below you can read more about how we support the effort toward more sustainable use of plastics on a national, regional, and global level.

The negative consequences of our use of plastics have gained increased political focus in recent years. Handling and upcycling of plastic waste is now a recurring theme on the global agenda.

With its focus on ocean plastic waste Ocean Plastic Forum taps into this agenda.

Sustainable Development Goals

Our operations and value chain establishment are consistent with UN’s Sustainable Development Goals:

Goal 12
Responsible Consumption and Production

Our collaborations and value chains seek to ensure responsible management and more sustainable use of plastics by prolonging the life cycle through recycling. Thereby the need for production of new virgin plastics and waste generation is reduced.

Goal 14
Life Below Water

Most plastics that end up in our waters stem from land-based activities. By initiating value chains in which plastic is removed from the oceans and recycled, we seek to reduce marine pollution, particularly from plastic. Further, our activities including knowledge sharing will ultimately increase awareness and focus on also preventing new land-based plastics from entering the waters.

Goal 17
Partnerships for the Goals

Collaboration is at the heart of our identity and is the basis for all our operations. The partnerships within Ocean Plastic Forum are built to achieve a common goal, and ultimately take on the biggest challenges in developing countries where the highest quantities of ocean plastic waste are gathered.

The Basel Convention

The Basel Convention under the UNEP is the only global legally binding instrument to specifically address plastic waste. The objective of the convention is to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects of hazardous and other wastes. The Plastic Waste Amendments sets up a procedure that ensure the environmentally sound management of exported waste. At Ocean Plastic Forum, we support the vision of the convention and seek to complement the objectives through the establishments of sustainable value chains and knowledge sharing.

EU Plastics Strategy

As part of the EU’s circular economy action plan, the EU Plastics Strategy, specifically calls for increased recycling, prolonging of the life cycle and prevention of plastic waste. The goal of the EU strategy is to make recycling of plastics profitable for businesses. This is a vision that we agree is necessary for a fair transition to a circular economy.

Denmark’s Climate Act

The activities of Ocean Plastic Forum further align with the Danish Climate Act and goal of 70% CO2 reduction by 2030 compared to 1990 levels and towards net zero by 2050.

According to the Climate Act, Denmark should be a pioneering country within the international climate actions and inspire the rest of the world. Additionally, the goals of the Climate Act should be achieved as cost-efficiently as possible by considering both long-term green transition, sustainable business development and competitiveness.

Ocean Plastic Forum supports this agenda through creating value chains that are both environmentally and economically sustainable. It is the goal of project Next Step – From Sea to Shelf that the value chain collaborations will increase the competitiveness of the participating companies as they become more experienced in the field. In the end, we hope to gear up the participating companies to take on the biggest issues with plastic waste around the world, particularly in Africa and Asia, where we currently see the biggest problems with ocean plastic pollution.

Our members and sponsors

Ocean Plastic Forum is a association of 40 members, consisting of interest groups, NGO´s, universities and a number of companies, who all share the same concern about plastic pollution in our oceans. Our member are our biggest asset in bringing our vision of clean oceans to life.