June 5th is World Environment Day, and this year’s slogan, #BeatPlasticPollution, sends a clear call for help to a world suffocating under plastic waste.
Just last Saturday, the International Negotiating Committee (INC) concluded its session, with 175 countries agreeing on the development of a draft agreement to reduce plastic pollution. This draft will be reviewed in November, aiming for a final treaty by 2024.
The stakes are high: annual plastic production, responsible for about 3.7% of global greenhouse gas emissions, has more than doubled in the last 20 years and could triple by 2060 if no action is taken.
Plastic pollution has exceeded the “planetary boundary”, beyond which ecosystems can no longer sustain conditions favorable to life. However, this pollution could be reduced by 80% by 2040 if countries and businesses, using existing technologies, adopt solutions based on the 3Rs: reuse, recycling, and reorienting production (according to the UNEP report “Turning off the Tap: How the World Can End Plastic Pollution and Create a Circular Economy”).
Transitioning to a circular economy would result in both direct and indirect savings of approximately $4.5 trillion and a net increase of 700,000 jobs by 2040.
At Carboni Steel, as specialized distributors of steel products within a virtuous and circular system, we are also doing our part. We are adopting renewable energy sources and gradually developing an ecological transition policy, involving producers committed to the environmental and social sustainability of their processes.
Source: RaiNews.
