An assessment of marine litter management in Guyana is being undertaken with the aim of developing a strategy for dealing with the problem.

According to a press release from the EPA this project is being pursued by the Government of Guyana and the Environmental Pro-tection Agency (EPA) in partnership with the United Nations Environment Pro-gramme-Caribbean Regional Coordinating Unit.

This strategy will pilot the implementation of the UNEP Regional Seas/CAR/RCU project for a draft regional action plan for marine litter, the release stated.

According to marine litter data collected in Guyana by the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC), an annual activity, the vast majority of marine litter comes from land-based sources.

These are sources from which waste is generated such as municipal landfills (waste dumps) located on the coast, riverine transportation, discharge of untreated municipal sewage and storm water (including occasional overflows) industrial facilities and tourism (recreational activities on the coast and from beach goers).

In this regard the need to address issues relating to solid waste management, especially inland, is necessary since land-based sources of litter must be controlled in order to reduce the volume of marine litter in the environment, the release said.

And the assessment revealed that while there were no direct public awareness and education programmes conducted in Guyana to specifically address the issues regarding marine litter, there are programmes relating to solid waste management. In response the EPA has since formulated public awareness and education programmes to address the issues regarding marine litter.

According to the release, the public awareness campaign for the marine litter project will utilize a combination of formats for maximum reach and impact and its general thrust will be on general environmental management and good environmental stewardship, both at the individual and community levels.

Marine litter is often referred to as marine debris and consists of any man-made, solid material that does not decompose easily, which has been disposed of or left in the marine and coastal environment and results in a continuous build-up of litter.

There are a wide variety of materials that contribute to marine pollution including plastics (fragments, sheets, bags, containers); polystyrene (cups, packaging, buoys); rubber (gloves, boots, tyres) and wood (construction timbers, pallets, fragments of both).