The United Nations, Monday, called for “more efforts” to put an end to the “plastic pollution catastrophe”, on the occasion of the World Environment Day celebrations hosted by Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast.
Saying, “We have to make more efforts,” Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program added, “The way the world produces, consumes and disposes of plastic has created a catastrophe,” reports Al-Rai daily.
In a statement to Agence France-Presse, she said, “we use it a lot and unnecessarily: straws, cups, bags, and means of protection for transported goods. There are many efforts that must be made at the state level and at the level of the transport sector as well.”
According to the United Nations, the annual production of plastic has more than doubled in twenty years, to exceed 430 million tons annually. This number could increase threefold by the year 2060 if the world does not move a finger.
A draft international treaty to combat plastic pollution is supposed to be drafted by November, in preparation for reaching a final text in late 2024, according to a decision adopted by 175 countries in Paris last week.
In 2013, the Ivory Coast government decided to ban the production, marketing, storage or use of plastic waste. However, this measure is applied only on a very small scale.
According to the United Nations, two-thirds of the plastic materials produced annually are short-lived products that turn into waste in a short time, and less than 10 percent of plastic waste is subject to recycling.
