World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is calling on governments to support global bans and phase outs of ‘most high-risk and unnecessary’ plastic items such as cutlery, vapes, cigarette filters, and microplastics, ahead of the United Nations plastic pollution treaty talks taking place from 29 May in Paris.
The new reports published– commissioned by WWF and conducted by Eunomia – reveal the most damaging plastic products and propose global control measures to eliminate, reduce or safely manage and circulate these plastics.
WWF is calling for these measures to be included in the plastic treaty text and introduced in Australia.
“The plastic pollution treaty currently being negotiated by UN member states is a major focus for the Australian Government, which is great news for our environment and wildlife,” says Kate Noble, No Plastics in Nature Policy Manager for WWF-Australia.
“But we don’t need to wait for a treaty to be a world leader in this space. We’re calling for a national approach to reducing plastic consumption and pollution that bans the most harmful plastics and chemicals, boosts our repair and reuse economy, and makes it easier for all Australians to make sustainable choices.”
According to WWF, Australia is one of the biggest consumers of single-use plastic per person in the world, recycling only 14 per cent of plastics.
“There’s no logical reason to keep many single-use plastic products in circulation globally when we know they’re causing so much damage; polluting waterways and choking the oceans and entering our own food chain,” says Marco Lambertini, WWF Special Envoy.
Following a promising start at the first Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee meeting last year, negotiators must now flesh out the details of the treaty text to effectively and fairly tackle plastic pollution.
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