One hundred million tons of plastic are dispersed in nature every year and the ban on disposable garbage would reduce this waste by 40 percent. There is something «profoundly wrong with the way we manage this resource on a global scale and the fight against pollution will not be decisive without the cooperation of all the sectors involved in the plastic life cycle». In short, it is a question of tackling the problem with effective instruments on an international scale. This is a summary of the message launched by the WWF within the new report «Responsibility and Reporting», a few days before the United Nations Assembly on the Environment (UNEA-4) which will take place in Nairobi – in Kenya – from March 11 to 15).
The environmental association urgently calls for a «binding global treaty» to stop the plastic pollution on sea: to support this request, the WWF has also launched a worldwide petition to which over 250,000 citizens have responded.
The association claims that 2030 is the reference year for an true change: With the adoption of a change in the treatment and transformation processes of plastic, it could be possible reduce the pollution by 57 percent (plastic pollutes even if doesn’t appear).
«If the situation does not change by 2030, the plastic pollution will double and the oceans will suffer the most», explained Marco Lambertini, general manager of the WWF. «We know the solutions to solve the problem, from the reduction to the collection, from the recycling to the development of valid alternatives».
Although if there are initiatives in many countries to combat plastic pollution, given the persistence of plastic dispersion in nature, their «ineffectiveness is clear».
The presence of all this plastic in ecosystems «represents a threat to wildlife and is responsible for serious direct impacts: over 270 animal species are trapped in abandoned fishing nets and other plastic waste; and 240 those have plastic waste in the stomach. This is a problem both for the health of the marine ecosystem and for the human also».
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