The United Nations launched Thursday a global campaign directed at governments, companies and consumers to reduce plastic residues in oceans.

The campaign “Clean Seas” was launched during the World Ocean Summit that will continue until Friday in Nusa Dua, in the Indonesian Island of Bali, the UN said in a statement.

“It is time to tackle the plastic problem that blights our oceans. Plastic pollution is surfing onto Indonesian beaches, settling onto the ocean floor at the North Pole, and rising through the food chain onto our dinner tables,” said UN Environment Head Erik Solheim.

Among other measures, the UN has advised governments to enforce measures to reduce plastic, and companies to reduce using it in packaging, while urging consumers to change their habits.

By 2020, the campaign proposes to completely eliminate the large amount of plastic residues in the sea that comes mainly from microplastics in cosmetics and disposables.

Nine countries have already joined the campaign, including Indonesia, which has committed to reducing by 70 percent the amount of plastic it dumped into the sea in 2015, Uruguay, which will impose a tax on plastic bags, and Costa Rica, which will invest to better manage residues and to spread awareness over reducing the use of plastics.

Computer firm Dell has also pledged to use recycled plastic collected from near Haiti for the manufacture of its products.

According to the UN, plastic accounts for 80 percent of the waste in oceans and causes damages to the tune of $8 billion in the marine ecosystem.

The rate at which residues such as plastic bags, containers and bottles are increasing, by 2050 the weight of plastic will be more than that of fishes in the seas, and 99 percent of sea birds would have consumed the residues. EFE