WWF’s plastic waste journey started in June 2019 with the WWF Plastic Diet Campaign
Your Plastic Diet Campaign
WWF launched a campaign to increase awareness about the fact that we consume plastics
On average people could be ingesting around 5 grams of plastic every week, which is the equivalent weight of a credit card.
Our study suggests people could be consuming on average over 100,000 microplastics every year. That’s approximately 21 grams a month, just over 250 grams a year.
There are already probably 150 million metric tons of plastic in the oceans because this problem was ignored for decades. We urgently need a UN agreement to end plastics leakage into the seas by 2030.
Every single country is part of this plastics crisis. And every single one must be part of the solution: we need a united global response, with the world’s governments made accountable for ending marine plastics pollution.
That’s why we, the people of the world, ask you to create a global and legally binding UN agreement to stop the leakage of plastics into our oceans by 2030. The agreement should:
- set strict goals for pollution reduction in each UN member state,
- instruct each state to create national action plans to meet these goals.
WWF Singapore
WWF Singapore jumped on the wagon too.
Started by WWF-Singapore, PACT (Plastic ACTion) is a business initiative which aims to eliminate plastic pollution in nature and ultimately move towards a circular economy on plastics. What is the pact about?
- The three largest food delivery companies – Deliveroo, foodpanda and Grab will add a toggle button that allows customers to refuse disposable utensils by default.
- No plastic straws
- Encourage businesses to reduce their consumption and production of virgin fossil fuel-based plastics while contributing to a circular economy.
- An image on their website claims: No plastic in Nature by 2030
REF – What is Pact ?
WWF South Africa
Let’s get Africa on board too.
WWF has led the development of a national initiative – The South African Plastics Pact – which brings together key stakeholders in the plastics value chain – businesses, governments and NGOs – behind a common vision to address plastic waste and pollution issues.
The South African Plastics Pact will be the first African Plastics Pact to join the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s global Plastics Pact network of national and regional initiatives that bring together businesses, governments and NGOs in a country or region behind the common vision of the New Plastics Economy.
The South African Plastics Pact has been developed in partnership with the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and the South African Plastics Recycling Organisation (SAPRO), and is supported by the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Plastics Pact network.
REF – The South African Plastic Pact
WWF France
The party couldn’t be complete without ze Frenchies
WWF France is joining, alongside the Ministry of Ecological and Inclusive Transition, the NGO Tara Expeditions and distribution and agrifood companies, a national pact aimed at reducing pollution linked to plastic packaging. According to WWF, the most important milestones are
- Eliminate problematic or unnecessary plastic packaging by 2025 ;
- Eco-design packaging to make it 100% reusable and recyclable by 2025;
- Collectively reach 60% of plastic packaging recycling by 2022
REF – Pacte national sur les emballages plastiques
Stop the Flood of Plastic – How Mediterranean countries can save their sea
Together, through collective commitment and national action, governments, industry and members of the public can achieve zero plastic leakage into nature and the mediterranean sea by 2030.
WWF calls on Mediterranean governments to:
- Enter into a legally binding treaty to eliminate plastic leakage into nature by 2030, and support each other in achieving this goal.
- Ban unnecessary and problematic single-use plastic goods, and use extended producer responsibility schemes to hold industry accountable for the downstream impacts of their products.
- Invest in effective waste management systems to ensure that all material is collected, reused and recycled.
- Support the innovation of plastic alternatives and the development of a market for recycled material.
- Promote responsible consumption and proper waste management amongst residents and tourists.
WWF calls on industry to:
- Take responsibility for the full life cycle of plastic products instead of passing the cost of waste on to society and nature.
- Design products that eliminate any unnecessary plastic, and that can be easily recycled and reused.
- Produce goods made of recycled materials, without use of any unnecessary virgin (or new) plastic.
REF – WWF Report 2019 Stop the Flood of Plastic
REFS
Published on wwf.fr
Pacte national sur les emballages plastiques
REMARKS
WWF jumped on the “plastic crisis” wagon.
For WWF, the plastic waste crisis represents a unique opportunity to win media visibility, new revenues and above all … relevance.
In the Plastic Diet Campaign, they propose to create a global and legally binding UN agreement to stop the leakage of plastics into our oceans by 2030.
So when WWF Singapore claims “No Plastic in Nature by 2030”, they mean: stop the leakage of plastics into our oceans by 2030. And that’s not very ambitious. And how do they want to do it? By adding a toggle button, banning plastic straws and encouraging businesses to reduce virgin fossil fuel-based plastics … A bit light-ish
WWF France and WWF South Africa joins the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Initiatives called the Global Commitment (or its regional / local derivative). Ellen MacArthur’s Global commitment is what we call “self-regulation” …. a not legally binding industry initiative … in contradiction with the “legally binding” element claimed in the Plastic Diet Campaign.
It reminds me of the following quote:
“A leader is a man who can adapt principles to circumstances.” — George S. Patton Jr.
And I will say …. An NGO (like WWF) is an organisation who can adapt principles to opportunities.