Virgin plastic production and consumption have reached unsustainable levels. Overproduction has meant inexpensive virgin plastic is used freely and inefficiently, with unfavourable economics for most recycling, leading to a stark discrepancy between how much plastic is produced and how much is recycled.
The new legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution will need to consider measures across the full lifecycle of plastics. So called ‘midstream’ measures, for example on product design, will be essential to complement absolute reductions in plastic production.
Abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) – also known as ‘ghost gear’ – is a major contributor to marine plastic pollution.
In this briefing we provide some key considerations for negotiators going into INC-1 (previous briefing in this series can be found here).
The IWC’s critical role in tackling the impacts of plastic on the world’s whales, dolphins and porpoises Global production of virgin (primary) plastics has increased from two million tonnes in 1950 to 460 million tonnes in 2021 – an increase of 22,900 per cent. To date, humans have produced about 10 billion tonnes of plastics […]
Plastic pollution resulting from rampant overproduction of plastics and their lifecycles is irreversible, directly undermines our health, drives biodiversity loss, exacerbates climate change, and risks generating large-scale harmful environmental changes.