Tackling marine plastic litter requires coordinated efforts across all sectors. Scientific research has played a big role in advancing our understanding of the problem, its extent and impacts, as well as in driving attention to it at every level of society. Science and the knowledge it generates continues to be the foundation for solutions to marine plastic pollution, through research, monitoring and assessments, through material, product and process design, and by providing an evidence-base for policy.

Setting the stage for the SEA of Solutions, this opening plenary will consider how far the science has taken us – what do we know and what have we achieved? – as well as what we still need the science to tell us in order to successfully tackle marine plastic pollution.