Plastic is cheap, light and mouldable. We use it everywhere. However, the durability and low cost that make it so useful also make it such a common and dangerous pollutant. Plastic doesn’t biodegrade. Rather it breaks down into smaller pieces that can remain in ecosystems for centuries. Furthermore, animals often mistake plastic for food or nesting materials, which can lead to them being poisoned or choked.
Eight million tons of plastic waste that enter the oceans annually and by 2015 plastic could outweigh fish in world oceans, threatening marine ecosystems all over the world.
Reducing our reliance on plastic and increasing the amount that is recycled can go a long way toward preserving the environment.
32 Governments across the world have already signed up to UN Environment’s Clean Seas campaign, committing to specific legal and policy measures to tackle marine plastic pollution.
Looking to reduce plastic pollution, the following countries or areas in Europe have banned the sale of several types of plastic bags in stores: France, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Italy, Netherlands and several regions in Türkiye.
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Meanwhile, several countries have some form of deposit-refund system or other return mechanisms for bottles and cans, helping avoid them ending in the ocean.
These include Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland. The UK is currently considering introducing a deposit-refund, which experts estimate could increase the return percentage on bottles and cans by more than 30 percentage points to above 90%.
On 4-6 December, world leaders will meet to discuss solutions for fighting pollution at the third UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi.
Read more on marine pollution in the background report to the third UN Environment Assembly, ‘Towards a Pollution-Free Planet’, here and on UN Environment’s Clean Seas campaign here.
Make your pledge to beat this and different types of pollution by visiting beatpollution.org
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UN Environment in Europe brings you #FridayFacts showing how our work concretely helps moves towards sustainable societies, with #noBlabla.
