Jason Momoa
UNEP Advocate for Life Below Water
With trillions of floating pieces of plastic in the open ocean today, it can be hard to recall life before the age of plastic waste. My home island, Hawaii, has some of the world’s dirtiest beaches, with fish eating plastic particles just days after being born — no surprise given that nearly two-thirds of all plastic becomes waste after a single use.
Plastic pollution damages humanity
I took a vow to go after single-use plastic, not only because it’s ugly but because it is killing us. It is in our food and blood vessels. Plastics are on track to emit almost one-fifth of global greenhouse gases, making beating plastic pollution a key part of ensuring a liveable climate.
Turning off the tap on plastic pollution requires joint efforts by governments, cities, the finance sector, businesses, including 20 million waste pickers worldwide, Indigenous Peoples and civil society organisations. This is why I support the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) campaign to beat plastic pollution.
Turning off the tap on plastic
pollution requires joint efforts.
International treaty to end plastic pollution
Delegates from across the world have been negotiating since 2022 to establish an international legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. A final round of negotiations is set to take place in November this year in Busan, South Korea.
To deliver its promise, a plastics treaty must support zero-waste initiatives; offer subsidies and taxes to incentivise innovative technologies and disincentivise plastic production; have time-bound targets to eliminate unnecessary single-use, short-lived and problematic plastics; boost the redesign of products to make reuse easier; strengthen recycling; and put the responsibility of cleaning up the remaining pollution on those who keep up production. These essential policies would shift us towards a circular economy.
As with any historical correction, breaking away from plastic pollution would result in many winners while plastic polluters must be on the losing side. Ultimately, they will adapt to a new way of doing business, and their children and grandchildren will benefit from a world free of plastic pollution.
