In campaign against plastics, the world is making tentative progress

In 2018, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) joined forces with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to tackle what environmental experts call one of the world’s most dangerous addictions: plastics.

Now, nearly half-way through the seven-year timeline of that Global Commitment to the New Plastics Economy, UNEP and partners find that, while progress has been made, the world needs to ramp up actions to curb plastic pollution.

Humanity dumps its own combined weight in plastics annually into ecosystems. That’s 300 million tonnes every year choking waterways and seas, clogging streets, harming wildlife and, ultimately, doing serious damage to public health.