Plastic pollution is one of the most pressing environmental issues the world is facing today. The rapidly increasing levels of plastic production are negatively impacting the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable development.  

The UNEP-DHI Centre is supporting the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in its efforts to curb plastic pollution by developing digital solutions to estimate plastic pollution in rivers and freshwater ecosystems, as well as in facilitating data sharing on plastics across organisations and nations. 

In 2022, the United Nations Member States endorsed a historic resolution to develop an international legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. Over the past years, the UNEP-DHI Centre has become a trusted partner to the Global Partnership on Plastic Pollution and Marine Litter (GPML). The Centre has supported the development of digital tools that allow countries to track the status of marine litter and plastic pollution, both at the national and global levels.  

The UNEP-DHI Centre team have been working on supporting GPML across three activity streams: 

• The GPML Data Hub development enabling collection and sharing of global plastics data  
  UNEP-DHI is leading the development of the GPML Data Hub within the GPML Digital Platform. Information about key data, policies and technologies to fight plastic pollution is made available through the GPML Data Hub, covering the full lifecycle of plastics. This comprehensive indicator collection in the Data Hub enables stakeholders at all levels – global, regional, national and local – to get easy access to curated data on plastics, including plastics trade, plastic waste management, plastic pollution in the environment and plastic governance. 

• Capacity development on plastic pollution monitoring and management. GPML and UNEP have been working with 18 countries to strengthen their capacity for the identification of plastic pollution sources, and development of national action plans and strategies. The UNEP-DHI Centre has been supporting the execution of online training sessions with country representatives. Our team has also supported the design of dedicated country workspaces, enabling these 18 countries in crafting comprehensive national source inventories, which facilitate the development of a National Roadmap/Strategy/Plan through an evidence-based approach. 

• Developing a model to estimate plastic pollution in rivers and freshwater ecosystems 
  Understanding, monitoring and forecasting river plastic flows can help identify where the problem is, where it originates and how best to intervene. Building upon DHI’s Global Hydrological Model, UNEP-DHI developed a model that is capable of identifying upcoming freshwater hotspots and plastic accumulation points up to nine months in advance and includes all major river systems in the world. Using estimates of how much plastic is entering rivers every day as well as field data on plastic loads as model input, simulations of plastic accumulation are produced for over 870,000 points along rivers worldwide. The model is accessible to countries for assessing the status of plastic pollution in rivers, which aids in identifying and prioritizing interventions. This process is integral to developing plans which will then inform actions on the ground . The model can also help monitor progress in near real-time to assess the impact of interventions and policies. 

For more information please contact Maija Bertule at MABE@dhigroup.com  or Bertrand Richaud at BER@dhigroup.com. 

Learn more about Plastic Pollution and UNEP-DHI’s work through these resources: