Plastic Free July (#PlasticFreeJuly) is a global movement that helps millions of people raise awareness of this problem and influence the reduction of plastic pollution.
Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues, as rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products overwhelms the world’s ability to deal with them. The mobilization of plastic and plastic litter caused by floods is a huge problem. Floods and their ability to transport plastic pollution do not recognize administrative boundaries, so reducing the mobilization of plastic in rivers requires multilateral policies on plastic waste and flood risk management.
To address environmental pollution by plastic litter, the European Union adopted EU Directive 2019/904, the so called “Single-Use Plastics Directive” (SUPD), which bans several single-use plastic products and addresses additional items with measures such as extended producer responsibility and obligatory requirements for product redesign.
The European Commission under the EU Green Deal policy objectives and Horizon Europe research and innovation funding programme is supporting projects that take an innovative approach at tackling the growing problem of plastic pollution.
Clean the river, the coast, the beach, buy food without or with as little plastic packaging as possible, bring a shopping bag, buy local products and reusable dishes to reduce plastic waste and the impact of plastic on the environment. It’s time to become aware that we all have an important role to play in ending plastic pollution.