Earth Day 2018 aims to end plastic pollution

Earth Day Network, the organisation that leads Earth Day worldwide, said Earth Day 2018 (which falls on April 22) will focus on mobilising the world to End Plastic Pollution.

This includes creating support for a global effort to eliminate single use plastics along with uniform regulation for the disposal of plastics. EDN will educate the public about the health and other risks associated with the use and disposal of plastics, including pollution of our oceans, water, and wildlife, and about the growing body of evidence that decomposing plastics are creating serious global health problems.

From poisoning and injuring marine life to the ubiquitous presence of plastics in our food to disrupting human hormones and causing major life-threatening diseases and early puberty, the exponential growth of plastics is threatening our planet's survival, the organisation said. EDN has built a multi-year campaign to End Plastic Pollution and its goals include ending single use plastics, promoting alternatives to fossil fuel-based materials, promoting 100% recycling of plastics, corporate and government accountability and changing human behaviour concerning plastics.

"There is a growing tidal wave of interest in ending plastic pollution and some countries and governments are already in the vanguard. Earth Day Network believes we can turn that tidal wave into a permanent solution to plastics pollution," said Kathleen Rogers, president of EDN.

The End Plastic Pollution campaign includes four major components:

• Leading a grassroots movement to support the adoption of a global framework to regulate plastic pollution;
• Educating, mobilising and activating citizens across the globe to demand that governments and corporations control and clean up plastic pollution;
• Educating people worldwide to take personal responsibility for plastic pollution by choosing to reject, reduce, reuse and recycle plastics, and
• Promoting local government regulatory and other efforts to tackle plastic pollution.

Earth Day Network said it will leverage the platform of Earth Day and the growing interest in the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day in 2020 as a catalyst for global action.