Pollution from plastics is a global emergency in need of a robust UN treaty, the BBC quotes a report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) as saying.
According to the report, there’s a cascade of evidence of harm from plastics.
It argues that the plastic pollution threat is almost equivalent to climate change.
The air we breathe now contains plastic micro particles, there’s plastic in Arctic snow, plastic in soils and plastic in our food.
It’s reported, for instance, that about 20 elephants in Thailand have died after eating plastic waste from a rubbish dump.
The authors urge nations to agree a UN treaty with binding targets for reducing both plastic production and waste.
“There is a deadly ticking clock counting swiftly down,” said the EIA’s Tom Gammage.
“If this tidal wave of pollution continues unchecked, the anticipated plastics in the seas by 2040 could exceed the collective weight of all fish in the ocean.”
The United Nations has identified three existential environmental threats – climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution – and concluded that they must be addressed together.
