Scholarly record

THE IMPACT OF PLASTIC ON THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT

Katarina Balić

Abstract

The harmfulness of plastic waste on marine organisms and species has been demonstrated. Throwing and dumping plastic waste is causing damage to the environment, causing economic damage to activities such as tourism, fisheries, and sea traffic, and can affect people's health through the food chain. The paper will outline ways and measures to prevent the introduction of single-use plastic into the marine environment as well as the possibility of producing biodegradable plastics. Through this paper concept of marine waste and its impact on the environment, as well as the legal regulation of the protection of the sea and the marine environment will be analysed. Reducing the production of single-use plastics reduces its disposal to the marine environment, and the production of plastic that can be composted allows for a permanent reduction in the disposal of plastic waste into the marine environment. If it is desired to achieve a circular life cycle for plastics, measures must be taken to increase the generation of plastic waste and its release into the environment. It is considered that the active support of the recycled plastics market should be encouraged by the use of environmental materials and high quality recycling in order to achieve the ultimate goal of reducing the amount of plastic waste in the environment.

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