Yes, we can reduce global plastic pollution

We’ve all seen it. In our front yards. On the road to work. On the local playground. At the beach. On a hike. The world is drowning in plastic pollution, from the deepest depths of the ocean to the highest mountain tops. It is even found inside each of us — tiny particles that we’ve eaten and breathed in. According to the United Nations, the world produces about 300 million tons of plastic waste each year — almost as much as the combined weight of every person on the planet. This year, millions of those tons will enter the ocean, where they may be consumed by marine creatures, from tiny plankton to the great whales or litter our beaches and coral reefs.

We can no longer avoid or delay addressing plastic pollution. It’s time to choose a different path, one where we live more sustainably with nature. To make progress, we must acknowledge that plastic pollution isn’t just an enormous global challenge — it’s a human-made crisis. It has increased tenfold since 1980. Plastic particles have polluted our air, soil and water, with adverse impacts on the environment and potentially human health.

Congress and the American people have already recognized this crisis — thanks to bipartisan support, the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act was signed into law in December 2020, strengthening our ability to address plastic pollution that enters our waters. But without concerted global efforts, plastic pollution will continue to accumulate in our waterways and ocean, causing increasing harm to our ocean and planet.

We now have a way forward. In February, at the fifth UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, the international community took an important step on that path to build a better world for generations to come as countries signaled their readiness to end the plastic pollution crisis. Participating countries adopted a resolution to launch negotiations on a global agreement to end plastic pollution — an agreement that will be essential for conserving the ocean for future generations.

And the United States, supported by an incredible team of dedicated negotiators, played a pivotal role in generating the ambition and consensus to finalize that agreement. An agreement that initiates real and meaningful progress towards reducing plastic pollution in collaboration with our partners and allies around the world.

Over the next several years, the United States will be driving negotiations to build an innovative and ambitious framework that determines how countries combat and reduce plastic pollution. A framework that accounts for individual countries’ circumstances and pushes for complementary action by all stakeholders, especially the private sector.

While the decision to pursue a global agreement represents an important step forward, our work is nowhere near over. The United States will continue our push to stem the flow of plastic pollution into our waterways this month at the Our Ocean Conference, co-hosted by the United States and the Republic of Palau. The Our Ocean Conference will focus on six broad areas of action, one of which is combating ocean pollution, including plastic pollution. This event is an opportunity for countries to propel meaningful, significant action on reducing the scourge of plastic pollution clogging our waterways — which will also protect ocean environments and support the communities that depend on them for their livelihoods. 

We know that many of the environmental challenges we face are related. By working to reduce pollution for all people across the planet, we support progress on other global challenges, including improving health and prosperity, supporting biodiversity, conserving threatened ecosystems, addressing climate change, as well as building a sustainable world for all.

We know that the road ahead is not easy. These challenges require all of us to come together and think broadly about how we can build a better environmental future. There is no one-size-fits-all solution to reducing plastic pollution, and we must use every available opportunity to make meaningful progress. People around the world are fed up and demanding solutions — and so are we.

Monica P. Medina is assistant secretary of State for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs.