Individuals, communities, civil society, businesses and governments around the world today marked World Environment Day with a focus on solutions to plastic pollution, with official celebrations held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, with the support of the Netherlands. The focus on solutions to plastic pollution this World Environment Day is particularly timely, following the recent conclusion …

World Environment Day brings solutions to plastic pollution into focus Read More »

Governments are meeting in Paris this week to negotiate a global treaty on plastic pollution, as alarm grows over the environmental damage caused by surging amounts of waste. Producing plastics causes major planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, while the accumulation of plastic products in the environment pollutes lands and oceans. In a recent report, the United …

Plastic pollution is surging, so what are governments doing? Read More »

A United Nations committee met in Paris Monday to work on what is intended to be a landmark treaty to bring an end to global plastic pollution, but there is little agreement yet on what the outcome should be. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for Plastics is charged with developing the first international, legally binding treaty …

UN Talks on Treaty to End Global Plastic Pollution Open in Paris Read More »

With just one month to go until World Environment Day on 5 June, which will focus on solutions to plastic pollution, we look back at how a mountain advocate raised the alarm on the tide of waste inundating fragile ecosystems. Nepalese mountaineer Nirmal Purja has spent years scaling the world’s highest peaks. During a seven-month stretch in …

As plastic pollution piles up, mountain tourism reaches a crossroads Read More »

This year’s World Environment Day – the fiftieth iteration of the annual celebration of the planet – is focusing on the plastic pollution crisis. The reason? Humanity produces more than 430 million tonnes of plastic annually, two-thirds of which are short-lived products that soon become waste, filling the ocean and, often, working their way into the human food chain. “Many …

Everything you need to know about plastic pollution Read More »