Lawmakers Must Keep Plastics Out To Save Nature

By Cristina Marcos, World Wildlife Fund

The last few months of 2024 will be pivotal for the future of our planet. This fall, world leaders will gather on the international stage in rapid succession to address plastic pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change.

We have clear momentum in advancing pragmatic, bipartisan solutions. But we must move faster and on a greater scale to save nature as we know it. Here’s a look at how far we’ve come and how policymakers must urgently close the gap in three keyways.

Stopping the plastic pollution crisis to protect nature requires action from every level of government from state and federal measures in the US to a global treaty.

As the single largest consumer in the world, the US federal government has an outsized role to play in curbing plastic waste.

The Biden-Harris administration’s new commitment to phase out single-use plastic products across all federal agencies by 2035, and in food service by 2027, shows how we can make change happen at the scale we need by leveraging the government’s massive purchasing power.

At the state level, Minnesota policymakers took the US one step closer to our goal to keep plastic out of nature by enacting a historic new law in May that requires all packaging in the state to be reusable, recyclable, compostable, or collected by an approved alternative collection system by 2032.

This marked a major milestone for WWF’s advocacy to advance Extended Producer Responsibility, which incentivizes businesses to reduce their plastic footprint and provides the necessary structure for consumers to manage waste sustainably.

These are highly encouraging developments to help keep plastic out of nature in the US. But the US and other nations must do more to collectively transform how plastic waste is managed around the world.

World leaders face a make-or-break moment this November in Busan, Korea for what may be the final round of talks to secure an international agreement to address plastic pollution. WWF will be on the ground to advocate for the most ambitious possible outcome that holds all countries to a high common standard for reducing plastic waste.