‘Historic Treaty’ on Plastic Waste

It’s being described as the biggest climate deal since the 2015 Paris climate accord. Yesterday the UN environment assembly agreed the terms of a landmark global treaty to address plastic pollution worldwide.

Inger Andersen, the director of the UN Environment Programme, described the agreement, paving the way for global action to #BeatPlasticPollution, as a “triumph by planet Earth over single-use plastics”. Now the work begins to draft and ratify a full treaty by 2024.

Here at Kelpi we’re thrilled that the agreement covers the production and design of plastic, not just waste.

More than 75% of the 9.2bn tonnes of plastics produced between 1950 and 2017 are now waste. Just 9% is currently recycled worldwide (and 12% incinerated).  Yet plastic production is currently predicted to almost quadruple and take up 10-13% of the global carbon budget by 2050. It is this catastrophe of carbon emissions and plastic waste that Kelpi was set up to address. And UNEP clearly sees a role for innovators like us:

“In parallel to negotiations over an international binding agreement, UNEP will work with any willing government and business across the value chain to shift away from single-use plastics as well as to mobilise private finance and remove barriers to investments in research and in a new circular economy,” said Inger Andersen. 

Photo by Naja Bertolt Jensen on Unsplash