Big Plastic Producers Call for UN Treaty to End Ocean Plastic Pollution
Damaging plastic weighing same as 60,000 blue whales are dumped into oceans each year and forecast to rise, report says
Some of the world’s biggest plastic producers, including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, are joining a drive for a new international treaty to tackle plastic pollution in the sea.
The push comes as a report highlights how discarded plastic equivalent to the weight of about 60,000 blue whales are dumped into oceans each year – more than 11 million tonnes.
The drinks businesses, which last month were slated in research on plastic pollution, backed the call by environmental charities for a UN treaty urging governments to negotiate a global agreement on plastic pollution.
Nearly 30 businesses, also including Danone, H&M, Mars, Nestlé, and Unilever backed the call, which is the first such collective corporate action, and organizers are urging more private companies to join.
A resolution to start negotiations on such a treaty is expected to be tabled at a future session of the UN environmental assembly.
According to the UN itself, plastic waste kills up to a million seabirds and 100,000 sea mammals, marine turtles, and countless fish each year.
One study (1) found plastic in every marine turtle examined, 59 percent of whales, 36 percent of seals and 40 percent of seabird species.
The organizations behind the plea to the UN – WWF, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Boston Consulting Group – issued a report saying a global agreement setting out goals, action plans and binding targets are needed to truly tackle the problem on a global scale.
The document says the global volume of plastic entering the ocean is forecast to triple over the next 20 years.
It’s great to see so many of the “big players” - those who generate the most plastic bottle waste – join with companies like Tru Earth as we battle against plastic junk polluting the planet.
(1) https://ec.europa.eu/environment/marine/good-environmental-status/descriptor-10/pdf/Marine_litter_vital_graphics.pdf
(2) https://lp.panda.org/plastic-pollution-report
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