At this point, pretty much everyone agrees that plastic pollution is a problem. After years of campaigning, we have a historic opportunity to finally end the age of plastic! The first Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC1) to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including ocean plastics, will bring together 196 countries in Uruguay between November 28th – December 2, 2022, to create a Global Plastics Treaty. Isn’t that great?! It’s this plastics campaigner’s dream!
So, what’s on my wish list?
We cannot recycle our way out of the plastics crisis. To date, it is estimated only 9% of all the plastic ever produced was recycled, and production is projected to increase in the years to come. We will never be able to solve this crisis with just waste management and cleanups.
The idea that plastic recycling can solve the plastic pollution crisis is a lie pushed by Big Oil. As we kick off the first of five conferences to negotiate this potentially game-changing treaty, we need to see the USA, one of the world’s leading plastics polluters and an influential voice in this negotiation, come in strong with two main priorities:
- An immediate cap on virgin plastic production to 2017 levels, followed by significant, annually increasing reductions in the production and use of plastic.
- An end to single-use plastics, starting with the most unnecessary and harmful.
A strong, UNITED position on this treaty will help us protect our planet and support Frontline communities — often low-income communities of color — which bear the greatest impacts from the toxic extraction, production, disposal, incineration, and the so-called chemical recycling process.
As we negotiate for a strong global plastics treaty that will address the full life cycle of plastics, which includes toxic extraction, production, disposal, and incineration or remediation. It is also critical that this treaty ensures a just transition for workers in the fossil fuel industry and waste workers and their communities across the globe who are doing the difficult and sometimes dangerous work for corporations in cleaning up their plastic waste.
Yvette Arrellano of Fenceline Watch said, “What do you do when you have so many generations that have been exposed to a problem? We’ve all felt our communities begin to lose hope. And that’s why we are here; that’s why we are gathering.“
Their words inspire us, and we hope you are inspired too.
Here’s how you can help!
- Week of November 14th: Join the TwitterStorm and tell President Biden that we need a bold and just Global Plastics Treaty.
- Sign the petition demanding the Biden Administration champion a bold and binding Global Plastics Treaty!
Thank you for making this movement stronger!
