Around 88% of marine plastics are predicted to accumulate close to the shoreline, often on beaches and in estuaries. These areas typically support highly productive ecosystems with high economic value as tourism destinations, elevating the potential benefits of clean-up efforts.

While research and technology will have an important part to play, particularly in helping identify environmentally vulnerable ‘hotspots’, many proposed clean-up solutions are context specific and therefore a range of solutions will be required to target different circumstances. 

The report evaluated a range of clean-up approaches but found many technologies lack evidence on their effectiveness, scalability, and any negative environmental impacts. Where evidence does exist, it confirms the potential for environmental impacts.

In the absence of clear evidence on the overall benefits of technological clean-up, policy makers should focus on relatively low-tech solutions like beach and river clean-ups, which have a low environmental impact and range of co-benefits.

In the report, marine biologists and ecologists comment on a range of technologies designed to combat and clear plastic pollution, including ocean booms, magnetic separation, graphene carbon fibre aerogels, and beach hoovers.

While many methods showed promise in clearing some plastic from specific environments, the report concludes that few could be used at scale or in a range of different environments. The environmental cost of many of these technologies is also largely unknown and should be fully evaluated before they are implemented more widely. 

Despite this lack of evidence on efficacy, of the 27 plastic removal technologies evaluated in the report around two thirds are currently being manufactured and are ready for use. 

Alongside technologies designed to remove plastic from the environment, the report also looked at techniques that could be used to identify plastic pollution ‘hotspots’ to help prioritise areas for clean-up.

Modelling could help to predict where plastic pollution may accumulate in the ocean, while drones could quantify and identify plastic on shorelines, potentially helping to prioritise locations where clean-up would be most valuable and effective.