This year’s theme for World Environment Day is “ #Beat PlasticsPollution” which is the biggest danger to mankind and animals across the earth.
World Environment Day 5 th June, 2023 is a reminder that people’s actions on plastic pollution matters. The steps governments and businesses are taking to tackle plastic pollution are the consequence of this action.
It is time to accelerate this action and transition to a circular economy.
The world is being inundated by plastic. More than 400 million tonnes of plastic is produced every year, half of which is designed to be used only once. Out of that, less than 10 per cent is recycled. An estimated 19-23 million tonnes end up in lakes, rivers and seas. Today, plastic clogs our landfills, leaches into the ocean and is combusted into toxic smoke, making it one of the gravest threats to the planet.
Not only that, what is less known is that microplastics find their way into the food we eat, the water we drink and even the air we breathe. Many plastic products contain hazardous additives, which may pose a threat to our health.
The good news is that we have science and solutions to tackle the problem –and a lot is already happening. What’s most needed now is a surge of public and political pressure to scale up and speed actions from governments, companies and other stakeholders to solve this crisis. This underscores the importance of this World Environment Day mobilizing action from every corner of the world.
World Environment Day 2023 will showcase how countries, businesses and individuals are learning to use the material more sustainably, offering hope that one day, plastic pollution will be history.
Let’s take a pledge and work towards the careful consumption of foods and products wrapped in plastics and safe disposal of plastic scrap.
by Gunjan Bhatia (C-79)
