In observance of President's Day, we are closed on Monday, February 19, 2024.

A new UN treaty on global plastic waste has made significant progress with all major economies showing their support.

At a recent meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, the UN's Environmental Assembly discussed the need for a global treaty on plastic waste that didn't focus on all the disagreements but on what the reality actually looks like. 

While this isn't an agreed solution that is well overdue, it's a step in the right direction to get all the large countries and biggest plastic polluters to discuss how they can all fight the growing mountains of plastic. 

TreeHugger had a report that highlighted one of the major breakthroughs of the treaty. 

statement
“The treaty should cover all plastic pollution, in any environment or ecosystem. This is an important broadening of the mandate from early concepts of “marine plastics” which would have severely limited the scope and impact of the treaty.”

“The treaty should cover all plastic pollution, in any environment or ecosystem. This is an important broadening of the mandate from early concepts of “marine plastics” which would have severely limited the scope and impact of the treaty.”

The other important factor is that the goal right from the start will be to make the treaty legally binding by all parties that sign up to it. And it will also cover the full lifecycle of plastic from the oil-based carbons to the endless plastic floating in our Oceans and even the plastic that makes it into recycling facilities.

Chris is one of GreenCitizen’s writers who has been a long-time advocate of individual responsibility when it comes to the environment. He shares GreenCitizen's passion for making the world a better place every day of the year.

Subscribe to
our newsletter