Ocean Conservancy
Author: Keri Browder
Evaluating challenges and opportunities in five cities battling plastic pollution using the Circularity Assessment Protocol
For many of us, the story of trash ends when we put our trash out on the curb on pickup days. For Urban Ocean and the cities they partner with, it is just the beginning. Many cities around the world struggle to create systems to manage their waste, and that can sometimes mean that trash ends up as pollution in our ocean. The Urban Ocean program works with cities to find opportunities to better manage their trash and new solutions to ensure trash isn’t created to begin with.
In June 2020 Ocean Conservancy and our partners, The Circulate Initiative and Resilient Cities Network, announced the first cohort of learning cities to participate in our Urban Ocean program: Can Tho, Vietnam; Melaka, Malaysia; Semarang, Indonesia; Pune, India; and Panama City, Panama. These cities are connected to a vast network of community leaders, academics, and business leaders who are taking action to prevent plastic pollution from entering our ocean. This collaboration helps cities tackle ocean plastic pollution while advancing other city priorities like public health and job creation.