The updated Virginia Marine Debris Reduction Plan (VMDRP) for 2021-2025 is a roadmap, planning and monitoring tool, and a common framework for collaboration that will lead us to cleaner and healthier coastal waters and oceans.
Plastic pollution and marine debris are of local, regional, national, and global concern, so the Virginia Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Program took a leadership role in creating the first VMDRP in 2014–making Virginia the first state on the east coast to have a Plan in place to reduce marine debris and only the second in the US. Now, this updated Plan further strategically addresses this problem through policies, laws, research, behavior-change, and action on all levels. It establishes a comprehensive framework for strategic action and identifies priorities to reduce the impacts of marine debris on Virginia’s coasts, people, and wildlife.