Antigua and Barbuda, Trinidad and Tobago and Paraguay join Clean Seas campaign during UN Environment Assembly

Antigua and Barbuda, Trinidad and Tobago, and Paraguay joined UN Environment’s Clean Seas campaign, bringing the number of countries now involved in the world’s largest alliance for combatting marine plastic pollution to 60.

The three nations signed up during the Fourth UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi where more than 4,700 delegates from 170 countries have been meeting to hammer out new guidelines to enable humanity to prosper without degrading the planet’s already depleted resources.

Launched in 2017, the Clean Seas campaign works with governments, businesses and citizens to eliminate the needless use of disposable plastics and protect our oceans and rivers from a toxic tide of pollution that is endangering livelihoods and killing wildlife. The alliance now covers more than 60 percent of the world’s coastlines.

Antigua and Barbuda banned single-use plastic bags in 2016, becoming the first country in the region to do so. The island nation is now working to eliminate polystyrene products, which it hopes to achieve over the coming year. It is also looking to expand its recycling capacity and extend a scheme for collecting and recycling plastic bottles.

“Since introducing the region’s first ban on single-use plastic bags in 2016, Antigua and Barbuda has been a pioneer in the fight against marine plastic pollution. We are delighted to join the Clean Seas campaign and share our drive and experience with other nations so that together we can take decisive action to turn this toxic tide that threatens livelihoods, wildlife and the survival of our oceans,” said Molwyn Joseph, Minister for Health, Wellness and the Environment in Antigua and Barbuda.

“We are witnessing a deadly creep of environmental degradation. We should not bequeath this to the generations of the future. Leaders must now take action. We hope that by joining the Clean Seas campaign, we can galvanize global support for this urgent cause,” he added.

Landlocked Paraguay has committed to clean its polluted rivers, starting in the capital Asunción. As a first step, in February more than 1,000 volunteers cleared 43 tonnes of waste from the Mburicaó River. The Ministry of Environment hopes to restore the river to its former glory while also raising awareness among local people of the need to dispose of their waste responsibly.

Among Trinidad and Tobago’s top priorities is reinforcing its waste management system while also educating the population about the need to separate household waste.

Every year, around 8 million tonnes of plastic ends up in the oceans, poisoning fish, birds and other sea creatures. That’s the equivalent of one garbage truck of litter being dumped into the sea every minute. Plastic waste, in the form of microplastics, has also entered the human food chain, and the consequences are not yet fully understood.

Awareness of the need to act decisively against plastic pollution has been growing in Latin America and the Caribbean — a region that is particularly vulnerable to marine litter and other environmental threats caused by our changing climate, such as increasingly powerful storms.

Original source: UN Environment 
Published on 15 March 2019