Protest at the Marine Litter Conference in Bremen

50 Greenpeace activists demonstrate for the protection of the oceans at the G20 Conference on Plastic Rubbish in Bremen. Representatives of the 20 most significant Industry and threshold countries meet to discuss ways to reduce the amounts of plastic rubbish in the oceans. 50 activists in bright red survival suits form the letters ‘ACT’ together with a swimming banner saying “for plastic free oceans” in a lake near the conference venue. Banner reads "Macht die Meere Plastikfrei" and in English "Act for plastic-free oceans".
Greenpeace is calling on governments to ban key sources of marine plastics as a crucial first step, including phasing out single-use plastic items, such as packaging and microbeads. Any company or business producing plastic items, such as packaging, must be held to account under mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) to contribute to the solution.

Global plastics production has skyrocketed in the last 50 years, especially in recent decades. In 2002-2013 alone, it increased approximately 50 percent to 299 million tonnes from 204 million tonnes. This figure is expected to exceed an estimated 500 million tonnes per year by 2020, which would represent a 900 percent increase on 1980 levels.