Government to fight against micro-plastic pollution

Vidar Helgesen, joint climate declarationMinister of Climate and Environment Vidar Helgesen.Photo: regjeringen.no

Climate and Environment Minister, Vidar Helgesen, has given an alert about damaging marine litter and micro-plastic.
According to Bergen’s Tidende newspaper, Helgesen asked the Environment Directorate for a report on a series of new measures to reduce plastic pollution.

One reason for his new sense of urgency was the large whale that died at Sotra, which had a stomach full of plastic bags.

‘The terrible fate of the whale, and the horrendous images of all the plastic it had ingested, has fortunately also brought something good with it. The tragedy gained a lot of attention, and brought popular awareness to the problem of plastic in the marine environment’, said Helgesen.

As Environment Minister, he also has responsibility for the Environment Directorate and clearing the roads. Every year in Norway, around 8000 tons of micro-plastic and rubber dust from tires constitutes over half of the total that needs to be cleaned up.

The Environment Directorate is to consider an expansion of the recycling scheme for tires to be included as recycling products, including artificial turf and rubber granules.

In February, the government stated that 35 million will be devoted as funding for projects such as clearing visible plastic waste, and micro-plastic that can be found along the coast.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today