MARINE
LITTER
Let’s all take a moment to recall, when is the last time you used a plastic disposable item?
Was it the takeaway lunch, or the Starbucks drink you had?
Careless disposal of plastic items has become a part of our daily lives, especially only using the items for a short period time.
Statistics of the amount plastic entering the ocean each year. (Source: Ocean Conservancy)
TRAGEDY OF COMMONS
Most environmental problems we observed today, including ocean pollution and loss of natural resources, are argued to be caused by a phenomenon known as tragedy of commons. (Gardner & Stern, 2002) It is first coined by Garrett Hardin, an American ecologist and philosopher, in 1968.
In the case of marine litter, rather than removing parts of the common pool resource, the ocean, away, individuals are adding pollutants. Likewise, individuals like you and me see little harm in our own action, since each of us alone only consume that small amount of plastic as compared to the global consumption. However, repeated actions by many individuals will eventually lead to the desecration of our pristine ocean.
Government regulations
Laws and regulations can be used to encourage pro-social behaviours or discourage anti-social behaviours, through affecting individuals’ perception of their cost and benefit using incentives and punishments.
Education
Personal attitudes toward the problem can be changed with education, especially when indifference is due to ignorance about the severity of the problem. Education also informs people on how to behave to alleviate the situation.
Community management
Mutual observation and social pressure work well when a common pool resource is small enough to be managed informally by a small group of people, who set their own rules in the consumption of the resource.
Moral, religious and ethical appeals
Pro-social values are woven into religious, moral and ethical teachings.
SOLUTIONS TO TRAGEDY OF COMMONS
While the tragedy of commons may sound a little depressing, there are several ways proposed to combat against it and real-world application of the solutions have been tried.
4 main solutions were proposed by Gardner and Stern in 2002: