The second session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-2), concluded Friday 2 June in Paris, France.

The Committee met with a mandate to prepare a zero draft of the agreement ahead of the next session, due to take place in Nairobi, Kenya, in November.

More than 1,700 participants took part in Paris - over 700 Member State delegates from 169 Member States and over 900 observers from NGOs.

Get more information and watch the proceedings here.

The United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) has been collecting rubbish ahead of World Environment Day. 

Troops from the United Kingdom, Argentina and Slovakia joined forces to tackle litter in the UN controlled buffer zone.  

Read the full story here. 

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has launched a video message ahead of World Environment Day saying we can #BeatPlasticPollution if we act now. 

With 3 billion players across the world the gaming industry has a huge role to play in helping #BeatPlasticPollution.

Ahead of World Environment Day, Reliance Games, a gaming company based in India, has launched a campaign to highlight the impacts of plastic pollution. Through its games Little Singham and Little Singham Cycle Race- two hugely popular titles with over 75 million downloads- Reliance has introduced messaging around plastic pollution. In the games players have to collect virtual plastic bottles and prohibited plastic items, reinforcing the significance of reducing, reusing, and recycling plastics.

As well as Reliance, Sports Interactive and Sega have introduced fully recyclable packing for the popular Football Manager game.  Microsoft X-Box and Sony Playstation are looking at alternatives to plastic for packaging and recycled plastic for consoles and controllers.

Kamay, the latest creation by sustainable fashion brand Aleksander Revas, is more than just a jacket.

Made from premium faux-suede, developed from recycled PET bottles, the jacket hopes to serve as a catalyst for raising awareness about the urgent issue of plastic use in fashion and its impact on the environment.

The Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (COBSEA) has released a video highlighting the issue of ghost gear.

Ghost gear is lost or abandoned fishing equipment that causes damage to marine life and habitats. As well as the video COBSEA will be releasing a toolkit with prevention tips and simple actions to stop ghost gear entering the oceans. For more information visit here.

Last Stop: The Ocean is a website that provides North American communities, local governments and other organizations, with free materials designed to raise awareness about land-based marine litter entering water ways.

The website is available in English, Spanish and French.

Ahead of World Environment Day faith and community groups have a key role to play in driving environmental change.

The UN Environment Programme has put together an article on how they can help tackle plastic pollution and #BeatPlasticPollution.

The Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize, powered by Lonely Whale, is helping advance innovation to beat plastic pollution as the only global competition focused exclusively on sourcing and scaling marine-safe and biologically degradable alternatives to traditional thin-film plastic. The goal? Drive scalable, sustainable solutions to one of our greatest plastic pollution problems.

In the lead up to World Environment Day, young environmentalists across the globe gathered for a recent youth-led Virtual Roundtable co-hosted by OH-Wake Media, a youth-led network backed by the award-winning non-profit Lonely Whale, The Tide Turner’s Plastic Challenge and Code Green Earth.

Ahead of World Environment Day use and share these solutions in the Beat Plastic Pollution Practical Guide.