A study from Norway warns that marine plastic waste is releasing long-lasting chemicals and heavy metals into freshwater bodies, while cleanup efforts are failing to keep up with the rate of pollution buildup.
Plastic pollution is accelerating despite ambitious international goals to eliminate it by 2030. Cleanup efforts are removing significant amounts of waste from coastlines, but at the same time, more and more plastic continues to flow into marine and freshwater systems, where it releases dangerous chemicals that accumulate over time.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework calls for the elimination of plastic pollution by 2030. If this goal has been clearly defined, why have significant steps that make a real difference not yet been implemented?
Plastic pollution is much more than just beach litter. Marine plastic waste releases PFAS and heavy metals into lakes and small freshwater ponds, sometimes at levels exceeding thresholds. Birds and animals drink this water. PFAS are “forever chemicals” that threaten both natural systems and human health.
A worsening environmental crisis
Norway is home to spectacular natural landscapes, providing us with recreation, learning and encountering the environment. Everyone says they want to protect nature, but are we really doing enough? The reality is harsh: the environment is deteriorating, species are disappearing, and many populations are rapidly shrinking. This doesn't happen by itself. It is the result of human choices.
Before an environmental problem becomes particularly acute, we tend to call it an “environmental challenge.” At this point, we still have a chance to act. One of the greatest environmental challenges of our time is plastic pollution. Plastic that ends up in the ocean and on beaches doesn’t disappear. It breaks down into microplastics and stays around. It threatens marine life, birds, animals, and ultimately us, humans. This is not a problem that can be put off any longer. It needs to be solved now.
Every year, more than 19 million tons of plastic end up in rivers, lakes, and oceans. The experience of volunteers and professional clean-up organizations is clear: large amounts of marine plastic waste are collected and removed from coastal areas, but more waste continues to flow from the sea and wash ashore. And so on, year after year.
We are dealing with a kind of "compound interest" effect in the amount of marine debris accumulating on coastal landscapes. In the current system, neither volunteers nor professional organizations are truly able to deal with everything that is already in the environment, nor with everything that will continue to accumulate. This will be a problem that will accompany us for decades to come.
Cleanup efforts are failing to keep up
The author of the article has participated in marine debris cleanups and has also studied the impacts of marine plastic debris in coastal areas. The findings indicate alarmingly high concentrations of PFAS and heavy metals in marine plastic debris collected from small freshwater lakes and ponds. The concentrations measured in freshwater exceed the threshold values set by environmental quality standards.
Birds and wildlife are exposed to pollutants when they drink this water. The same is true for humans, when they consume meat from animals that graze on coastal islands, such as sheep. Small freshwater lakes and ponds are closed ecosystems. This means that environmental pollutants have “nowhere to go,” so their concentrations increase over time. This provides us with a warning of what is also happening in the oceans, but it is simply more difficult to detect the process quickly there.
Target 7 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework states that plastic pollution must be eliminated by 2030 to protect biodiversity.
The question is simple: Why aren't we taking steps that bring about real change?
National plans are insufficient
The Norwegian government has set out several goals in Government Policy Paper No. 35 for 2024–2025 and the Norwegian Plastics Strategy from 2021. These documents focus mainly on producer responsibility, reducing plastic production, improving waste management and measures to combat lost or unmarked fishing gear. The strategy also highlights the need for a global agreement on plastic pollution and an expert panel on chemicals and waste.
Yet Norway has no national plan to clean up the marine litter that has already accumulated in the environment, nor to manage the litter that is yet to come. Without long-term, well-funded measures for Norway’s coastal landscapes, the country will always lag behind, as plastic continues to accumulate and the challenge only gets worse.
While many good measures have been implemented, their impact is still not significant enough. The Norwegian Environment Agency has allocated 27.9 million Norwegian kroner to clean up marine plastic waste in 2025, compared to 80 million kroner a few years ago. The Norwegian Retailers’ Environmental Fund aims to clean up 55 percent of the coastline by the end of 2025.
These are important steps, but are they enough when plastic pollution is one of the greatest environmental challenges of our time? It is important to remember that an area cleaned up one year may become polluted again the next, due to the constant influx of marine plastic waste carried by ocean currents from both domestic and foreign sources. As they stand today, they provide mostly a short-term solution to a crisis that requires long-term solutions.
Ambition without action is not enough.
We cannot wait for a global agreement. Plastic waste is already around. The question therefore arises whether Norway should establish a national model for addressing plastic pollution, inspired by the national oil spill response system. One proposal is to establish a single central body, which would bring all players together under one roof and bear overall responsibility for setting priorities, directing resources to where they are needed most, and building clear, long-term strategies, along with adequate funding and a defined division of responsibilities.
University students express deep concern about plastic pollution and the consequences it will have for both the environment and human health. They have put forward many constructive solutions, but they emphasize that what is really needed is political action. They are impatient, and rightly so. If we want to avoid environmental pollution “forever,” we must start achieving the goals of the global biodiversity framework now. Ambitions are not enough. Action is what counts.
DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2025.e44232
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