Late last night, after two weeks of intense negotiations, delegates meeting at the United Nations finally agreed to language for a High Seas Treaty. This is a major milestone in a nearly two-decade effort to secure a treaty to govern and protect the High Seas, which make up 70% of the ocean and cover nearly half the planet. More than 160,000 supporters spoke up and urged leaders to act. This public support, along with the great work of partners like RISE UP, the High Seas Alliance, Greenpeace, and more, helped show decision-makers that people all over the world were watching and wanted action — and they delivered. There is still more work to do, as nations will now need to formally adopt the language and ratify the treaty at the country level. We will continue to keep you updated on campaign developments and the critical moments where we need your support.
Update: On June 30th, California passed the most sweeping EPR reform in the U.S. to date.
The decision was initially supposed to be made with a state-wide ballot vote later in the year, but state legislators took matters into their own hands and gave near-unanimous support to plastics bill SB 54. The new bill achieves even more than we hoped the ballot voting initiative could, particularly around funding for the environmental justice community, and will: 1. Allocate $5 billion over the next 10 years to protect California’s lands and waters from plastics; 2. Ban chemical recycling, a harmful process that burns plastic to use as fuel; 3. Phase out single-use packaging, and; 4. Make producers fund efforts to reduce plastic production, and increase the collection and processing of recyclable plastic items
We are so grateful for your support and the incredible leadership of The Nature Conservancy, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Oceana, the Ocean Conservancy, CalPIRG, and California Environmental Voters in this effort.
Every year, seven trillion pieces of microplastic flow into San Francisco Bay.
Plastic pollution is wreaking havoc on marine ecosystems along the coast and in communities across California, endangering the health of people and animals. In one example, plastic debris has been found in 25 percent of California's fish, causing injury and death and carrying across the food web, eventually to humans. A recent study found people consume as much as 5 grams of plastic per week, the equivalent of a credit card's worth of toxic material cycling through our bodies.
Companies are creating crushing amounts of plastic pollution, and Californians are forced to bear the costs. But a new ballot initiative could change that and hold manufacturers–not taxpayers–accountable for the pollution they produce.
