In the battle against marine plastics waste, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP, Nairobi / Kenya; www.unep.org) launched the "CleanSeas" campaign in February 2017. With a five-year plan to address the root-causes of marine litter, CleanSeas aims to engage governments, the general public, civil society and the private sector. The campaign also acts as a platform for local organisations that are already doing significant work on marine litter.

UN Environment has developed an online course on marine litter and stresses environmental education to change knowledge and practices regarding the production and consumption of single-use plastics. The CleanSeas campaign also contributes to the Global Partnership on Marine Litter, a voluntary partnership hosted by UN Environment for international agencies, governments, businesses, academia, local authorities, non-governmental organisations and individuals.

On 23 September 2017, Brazil became the 30th country to join the campaign, and is committing to a National Plan on Marine Litter as well as continuing to support the South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary and marine protected areas. According to UNEP, 5.8m t of plastics were produced in Brazil in 2016. Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Panama, Peru, Saint Lucia and Uruguay are the other Latin American and Caribbean countries to have joined the campaign.

With the longest coastline in the world, Canada also signed up to CleanSeas in September, and will contribute initiatives for pollution prevention, conducting research on the impact of microplastics in the aquatic environment and funding community-based programs, such as shorefront cleanups. In June 2017, the Canadian government published the Microbeads in Toiletries Regulations prohibiting the manufacture, import and sale of toiletries containing plastic microbeads, "including non-prescription drugs and natural health products." These include bath and body products, skin cleansers and toothpaste.