With vast amounts of marine litter posing multiple threats, from harming wildlife to damaging tourism to loading the human food chain with potentially cancer-causing toxins, a United Nations conference today issued a call for concerted action against an evil present in all the world's seas.

In a commitment statement issued at the end of week-long meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, experts from governments, research bodies, businesses and trade associations stressed the urgent need to improve global waste management, voicing concern at the growing presence of plastic debris among other rubbish discarded into the oceans, on shore, or brought indirectly to the sea by rivers, sewage, storm water or winds.

"Marine debris – trash in our oceans – is a symptom of our throw-away society and our approach to how we use our natural resources," said UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Achim Steiner, whose agency organized the meeting in cooperation with the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

"It affects every country and every ocean, and shows us in highly visible terms the urgency of shifting towards a low carbon, resource efficient Green Economy," he added in a message to conference delegates, who included experts from some 35 countries, governments, scientific bodies, corporations such as Coca-Cola Company and trade associations such as Plastics Europe.

"One community or one country acting in isolation will not be the answer. We need to address marine debris collectively across national boundaries and with the private sector, which has a critical role to play both in reducing the kinds of wastes that can end up in the world's oceans, and through research into new materials. It is by bringing all these players together that we can truly make a difference."

The Honolulu Commitment issued at the end of the meeting, the 5th International Marine Debris Conference, calls on "international organizations, governments at national and sub-national levels, industry, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), citizens and other stakeholders" to halt and reverse the occurrence of marine debris by minimizing waste and turning it into a resource in an environmentally sustainable manner.