The first annual International Day of Zero Waste took place on 30 March 2023. To mark it, businesses, governments, non-profits and more hosted events all over the world.

Mismanaged waste aggravates the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution. In 2020, the world generated 2.24 billion tons of municipal solid waste, of which 45 per cent was mismanaged.

A zero-waste approach entails responsible production, consumption and disposal of products in a closed, circular system. This means that resources are reused or recovered as much as possible and that we minimize the pollution to air, land or water.

On March 2 2022, Heads of State, Ministers of environment and other representatives from UN Member States endorsed a historic resolution at the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi to End Plastic Pollution and forge an international legally binding agreement by 2024. The resolution addresses the full lifecycle of plastic, including its production, design and disposal.

Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said the agreement is the most important international multilateral environmental deal since the Paris climate accord.

Research by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) indicates that agricultural soils may receive greater quantities of microplastics than oceans.

Plastics in soils is a global problem that usually goes hand-in-hand with intensive agriculture. According to the Global Assessment of Soil Pollution, as the world’s population is expected to rise by 2 billion by 2050, reducing plastic pollution in soil will be key to making progress on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The report, published by UNEP and FAO shows that global food security is being compromised by soil pollution.

Read more on this and get the report here.

Decisions we make have an impact on the environment. When we choose reusable and durable products and maximize their usages, we make the greener choice.

There is no one single solution to plastic products pollution. It is context and country-specific but taking a life cycle approach can help in taking the right decision.

In July 2022 the United Nations General Assembly declared that everyone on the planet has a right to a healthy environment, an important step in countering the alarming decline of the natural world.

"This resolution sends a message that nobody can take nature, clean air and water, or a stable climate away from us – at least, not without a fight," -Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.

The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative (GTPI), co-led by UNEP, requires national and local governments, private companies and supporting organizations in the tourism sector to commit to reducing plastic pollution and shift towards circularity by 2025. This guide shows governments how they can make tourism more sustainable. It sets out 12 aims for sustainable tourism and their implications for policy, and describes the collaborative structures and strategies that are needed at the national and local level.

Travellers on holiday can also take steps to reduce the amount of waste they generate while saving costs:

• Refuse what you can’t reuse
• Pack reusable and refillable items with you
• Spend and stay with businesses championing sustainability 
• This can gradually reduce local economies’ dependency on single-use plastic products.

The UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP’s) report From Pollution to Solution reveals the impact of marine litter and plastic pollution in the environment and their effects on the health of ecosystems, wildlife and humans, and shows how to phase out single-use plastic products by:

• Opting for reusable alternatives

• Turning ‘single-use’ into ‘multi-use’

• Designing products with circularity and end-of-life consideration

Find out more.

Côte d'Ivoire will host World Environment Day in 2023 in partnership with the Netherlands. The annual observance on 5 June will focus on solutions to plastic pollution.

Start making plans now!