Marine Litter
Marine litter is widespread and poses a threat to wildlife in and around the sea, and may also pose a risk to human health. Marine litter has recently gained significant attention and there is now a consensus for action. However, that requires more knowledge and a thorough understanding of this increasing global problem.
SALT maps quantities and transport of marine litter, and we identify sources and causes to litter ending up in nature. The knowledge we build is then transfered into concrete preventative measures or communicated to decisionmakers. We want to contribute to an efficient and knowledge-based monitoring of marine litter, and to be able to track changes over time. SALT also plays an important role in the development of new value chains for marine litter or plastic waste from maritime industries. Last, but not least, SALT is a key player in organising profsessional beach clean-ups in Norway.
Projects
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News
Our talented colleague, Vilma Havas, this week successfully defended her PhD in environmental and resource economics at Aalborg University in Denmark. She brilliantly presented her thesis, "Improving the sustainability of downstream solutions to marine macroplastic pollution by applying systems thinking."
Through her PhD work, Vilma has produced research and policy papers that provide new perspectives and guidelines for Norway and the world on achieving more sustainable management of plastic waste and pollution. Her thesis investigates how the application of systems thinking can improve
the sustainability of existing downstream solutions to marine macroplastic pollution, considering the currently highly linear plastics economy as a global system, while applying a Norwegian perspective to it.
We congratulate Vilma on a excellent PhD defense and look forward to future research projects together!
Until the spring of 2028, SALT will be working on marine conservation and the restoration of marine habitats and ecosystems as part of a new international research project funded by the EU. The BLUE CONNECT project addresses the urgent need to protect and restore marine habitats and ecosystems and to overcome gaps in the effective implementation of EU and global legislation by mobilizing the MPA managers, authorities, industries and local communities to co-develop and demonstrate a systematic approach to marine conservation planning and management. SALT will be participating in the project together with NIVA, while Raet National Park is highlighted as one of the example conservation areas.