Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Marine Pollution Bulletin journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpolbul Reducing marine pollution from single-use plastics (SUPs): A review Riley E.J. Schnurr, Vanessa Alboiu, Meenakshi Chaudhary, Roan A. Corbett, Meaghan E. Quanz, Karthikeshwar Sankar, Harveer S. Srain, Venukasan Thavarajah, Dirk Xanthos, Tony R. Walker ⁎ School for Resource and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Plastic marine pollution Single-use plastics (SUPs) Polystyrene Plastic straws Plastic cutlery Legislative and non-legislative interventions ABSTRACT Single-use plastics, or SUPs (plastic bags, microbeads, cutlery, straws and polystyrene) are substantial sources of plastic marine pollution, yet preventable via legislative and non-legislative interventions. Various international legislative strategies have been reported to address plastic marine pollution from plastic bags and microbeads, but these have since been accompanied by recent increasing public awareness triggered by international agencies and organizations. The Sixth International Marine Debris Conference highlighted increasing inter- vention strategies to mitigate SUP pollution. This study presents new multi-jurisdictional legislative interven- tions to reduce SUPs since 2017 and incorporates emergence of new non-legislative interventions to mitigate other types of SUPs at individual and private-sector levels that complement or influence legislative interventions. Further, effectiveness of SUP bag interventions (e.g., bans vs. levies) to help reduce SUP marine pollution are presented and range between 33 and 96% reduction in bag use. 1. Introduction The marine environment has become sinks for vast quantities of anthropogenic marine debris (Kershaw et al., 2011). The most abun- dant and widespread source of marine debris is plastics, accounting for 60–95% of marine litter (Walker et al., 1997, 2006; Derraik, 2002). Jambeck et al. (2015) estimated 8 million metric tonnes (Mt) of mis- managed plastic waste entered the oceans in 2010. Over 300 million Mt. are produced annually, but 50% are discarded after a single-use (Geyer et al., 2017). Single-use plastics (SUPs) can include plastic bags, microbeads, cutlery, straws and polystyrene (including cups and food containers) which are substantial sources of marine pollution (Xanthos and Walker, 2017). Plastic is highly durable, potentially taking cen- turies to degrade, and is considered hazardous due to release and sorption of contaminants (e.g., endocrine disruptors and persistent or- ganic pollutants) (Teuten et al., 2007; Rochman et al., 2013; Napper et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2016). Although plastic marine pollution was reported decades ago, it has only recently been recognized as a per- vasive global issue (Andrady, 2011; Eriksen et al., 2013, 2014; Jambeck et al., 2015; Walker, 2018a). Plastic marine pollution comprises both macro- (> 5 mm) and mi- croplastics (0.1 μm to < 5 mm) (Thompson et al., 2004). Macroplastics enter marine environments via rivers, dumping or poor waste man- agement, harming wildlife from entanglement, ingestion or habitat destruction (Barnes et al., 2009; Vegter et al., 2014). Microplastics include primary microplastics (e.g., microbeads) and secondary mi- croplastics (e.g., small plastic fragments derived from degraded mac- roplastics, such as plastic bottles) (Pettipas et al., 2016). Although microbeads were first created by Dr. John Ugelstad in the 1960s, they were not widely used in as exfoliants in personal care products and in cosmetics until the 1990s (Environment Canada, 2015). Microbeads are also used in cleaning products, printer toners, industrial products such as abrasive media (e.g., plastic blasting, textile printing and automotive molding) and medical applications (Pettipas et al., 2016). Microplastics are the most abundant plastic in the ocean and approximately 8 trillion microbeads are released into wastewater daily, making them difficult to remove from aquatic environments (Cole et al., 2011; Rochman et al., 2015a, 2015b). Microplastics accumulate in ocean gyres and have been found in remote aquatic and marine environments (Baldwin et al., 2016; Hurley et al., 2018). Rochman et al. (2015a) suggested micro- plastics pose a greater threat than macroplastics due to their ingestion by marine organisms, such as filter-feeding bivalves (Mathalon and Hill, 2014). Microplastics could also cause human health impacts due to con- sumption of microplastic contaminated foods, with potential effects mainly associated with toxicity of chemicals that are sorbed from the environment or additives that are used in the plastic materials them- selves (UNEP, 2015; GESAMP, 2016; Karbalaei et al., 2018). Marine plastic pollution has justifiably become an important global issue for citizens, governments, academics, and non-governmental organizations https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.10.001 Received 15 May 2018; Received in revised form 27 September 2018; Accepted 1 October 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: trwalker@dal.ca (T.R. Walker). Marine Pollution Bulletin 137 (2018) 157–171 0025-326X/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T