Greenpeace USA Oceans Director John Hocevar, who attended the consultation today said:
“As one of the world’s worst plastic polluters and a leading exporter of plastics to the global south, the US has an obligation to fix the crisis they have had an outsized role in creating. Agreement on the need for a treaty is the bare minimum response we expect in the face of an imminent threat that contaminates our food supply, damages human health, threatens biodiversity, accelerates climate change, and poses a significant risk to the environment.
“We need the Biden Administration to listen to civil society and act in accordance with the overwhelming scientific imperative to abandon our destructive model of take, use, and dispose. It is time for the US to work with the international community in guiding us into a new era underpinned by a global treaty that addresses the entire plastic lifecycle, including significantly decreasing production and increasing reuse.
“A piecemeal approach that solely focuses on waste management will be a missed opportunity that will enable plastic’s destructive impact on climate, environmental justice, and human health to continue to worsen. It is not a position we can afford.”
###
Contact: Tanya Brooks, Greenpeace USA Senior Communications Specialist, P: 703-342-9226, E: [email protected]
