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United Nations Environment Assembly

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Delegates react during the closing plennary session at the Fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA 5) after the United Nations agreed to start negotiating a world-first global treaty on plastic pollution in what has been hailed as a watershed moment for the planet at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi on March 02, 2022. – Nearly 200 nations at the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi unanimously agreed to create an intergovernmental committee to negotiate and finalise a legally binding plastics treaty by 2024. (Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images)
CLIMATE CRISIS

A triumph for the planet over plastic pollution

World leaders unanimously agreed to develop a legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution by the end of 2024

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read
A woman pushes a sack containing recycled plastic bottles past an area where plastic waste is being used to reclaim a swamp so that the land can be developed for housing in the Mosafejo area of Lagos on February 12, 2019. – Nigeria, which elects a new president on February 16, is Africa’s most populous nation and leading oil producer but is dogged by poverty and insecurity. (Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP)
EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY

Africa needs to beat plastic pollution, says WWF

The focus on waste, which is the end of the plastic life cycle, means that the root causes of plastic pollution are not addressed

  • Tunicia Phillips
3 min read
Only 9% of plastics is recycled once and less than 1% is recycled twice
BARBARA CREECY

South Africa’s support for strong, global plastic treaty hailed as progressive

Last year, leaked documents showed that the country was rejecting the proposed treaty

  • Sheree Bega
4 min read
(Mladen ANTONOV / AFP) (Photo by MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP via Getty Images)
CANCERS

Plastic waste is a planetary crisis

A United Nations meeting in Kenya is a step towards developing a legally binding global treaty that will decisively tackle plastic pollution

  • Sheree Bega
5 min read