Advances toward solutions for marine plastic pollution in southern California: Key recommendations of the white papers produced during the 2021 Scripps-Rady Ocean Plastic Pollution Challenge

The Scripps-Rady Ocean Plastic Pollution Challenge was a unique 6-month accelerator program focused on identifying effective, evidence-based approaches to curb the flow of plastic into the ocean, with a specific focus on marine conservation and marine cultural preservation areas along California’s coast. The inaugural program ran January - June, 2021, and participants engaged in a series of virtual short courses, team-based research, and a final two-day challenge to pitch solutions to an expert panel.A key component of the Scripps-Rady Challenge was team-based research from March - May, 2021. Each team was assigned one of the following research topics: changing human behavior, evaluating policy solutions, and data mapping. Working closely with their dedicated mentors, teams researched various aspects of their respective topics such as a review of past efforts and programs, an identification of key stakeholders, and an analysis of major knowledge gaps.This document includes: 1) a synthesis of all the findings of the white papers, including a table that divides them by stakeholder groups, and 2) a summary of each paper’s major findings and recommendations.