Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
A Guide for Government Partners Looking to Celebrate
World Environment Day 5 June 2018
Beat Plastic PollutionIf you can’t reuse it, refuse it
#BeatPlasticPollution
This year, with India as host, World Environment Day is calling on people across the world to help Beat Plastic Pollution.
Every year, 8 million tonnes of plastic enter our oceans, threatening marine and human life and destroying our natural ecosystems. We want to work with government offices to help them reconsider their plastic habits, generate solutions and help raise awareness.
To Beat Plastic Pollution, we need everyone to step up and think deeply about how they can not only reduce, reuse and recycle, but seek to inspire new behaviour. Our aim is to use World Environment Day to reduce the amount of plastic dumped into our oceans, which is currently a truckload every minute. This pack is an invitation to collaborate with UN Environment – work with us to take action and inspire your staff and colleagues in government to help turn the tide on plastic!
About World Environment Day
World Environment Day takes place every year on 5 June. It is the United Nations’ flagship day for promoting worldwide awareness and action for the environment. Over the years, it has grown to be one of the largest global platforms for public outreach, celebrated by millions of people in well over 100 countries.
It is the ‘People’s Day’ for doing something positive for the environment. Its aim is to harness individual actions and transform them into a collective power that has a legacy of real and lasting impact on the planet.
The day is celebrated in countless ways, with everything from beach clean-ups and tree planting to calling on staff and partners to get involved and do their bit. It is also a great moment to show your contribution to society. We need your support to make this World Environment Day a success!
Why celebrate World Environment Day?
1 Make an impact and join #CleanSeas: We can all play our part in reducing plastic pollution. Show how your government will take action to address plastic waste and reduce your plastic footprint. We want to encourage more governments to join the #CleanSeas campaign. If you’re already on board, share your country’s progress since the campaign launched in 2017.
2 Inspire others: The day is a fantastic opportunity to inspire citizens, partners and colleagues both within your Ministry and colleagues in other government offices to take action to reduce, reuse and recycle plastic waste.
3 Share your action with the world: Be part of something bigger this World Environment Day and show how collective actions can have huge results. Register your government’s event on the World Environment Day website so that we can share your activities with the global World Environment Day and showcase your leadership.
How to participate
Take a look at the following ideas and see how you can make a difference.
1 Sign up to the #CleanSeas campaign: In February 2017, UN Environment launched the #CleanSeas campaign, with the aim of engaging governments, civil society, the private sector and the general public in the fight against plastic marine litter. As of March 2018, 42 countries have officially joined the campaign – the full list can be found on www.cleanseas.org.
Clean Seas works with governments to introduce regulations and incentives to tackle marine litter, promote public awareness and exchange best practices. Governments can support the campaign and combat marine litter through multiple avenues, including:
● Policy: Draw up national and regional Marine Litter Action Plans that acknowledge the country’s marine litter problem and outline steps to address it. This may require new legislation and policies to promote marine litter reduction.
● Private-sector engagement: Establish instruments and incentives to encourage businesses and industries to take more action towards combating marine litter, both upstream in their supply chain and downstream with their consumers.
● Infrastructure: Set up national plastic management systems to measure the country’s overall plastic footprint so reduction can be monitored and assessed. This may require new waste management facilities and systems that can help reduce marine litter.
Plastic pollution is one of the biggest environmental challenges of our time, with statistics showing that there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish by 2050. To change the future, we each need to play our part. Whether it is a bottled soft drink, a bag from the supermarket, or a spoon in a coffee shop, single-use plastic has become embedded in our daily lives. The low cost, convenience and lightness of these products have revolutionized the packaging of goods. However, it is now clear that this convenience has had a catastrophic impact on the environment.
Introduction
● Awareness-raising: Raise public awareness of marine litter by funding education, industry and research institutions, and by promoting activities such as beach clean-ups, awareness days and conferences. Celebrate and support the efforts made by NGOs and the private sector to address marine litter, by publicizing their work nationwide.
● Best practices: Adopt successful best practices used in similar countries and influence upstream sustainable plastic production. By joining the Global Partnership on Marine Litter, you can draw on others’ experiences in combating marine litter.
To join the campaign, simply send a letter to UN Environment confirming the government’s actions to address plastic pollution. This should be sent to [email protected] and addressed to Erik Solheim. You could also announce this commitment on 5 June, World Environment Day.
2 Take part in the worldwide #BeatPlasticPollution game of tag on social media
In the build-up to 5 June, we want to get people around the world sharing with their friends, families and colleagues what they are doing to change their single-use plastic habits.
● Join the global #BeatPlasticPollution game of tag: Invite fellow ministers, colleagues and the public to take a selfie with their canvas shopping bag, metal straw or any other reusable product and tag five friends, telling them to do the same. The person tagged should post a photo with their reusable item within 24 hours.
● Challenge other departments and ministries to join you in cleaning the planet: Announce that your department/ministry is cleaning up plastic litter in a park or public space for World Environment Day. Tag other organizations in your network, challenging them to do the same. Post a video of the Minister, Ambassador or a high-level representative with their favourite reusable coffee cup and tag others to join them in taking action to curb disposable plastic waste.
● Tag your clean-up area: Publicly announce your plans to reduce single-use plastic within your organization and tag fellow organizations, challenging them to do even better.
● Spread the game of tag: Post a photo of your colleagues bringing their reusable food containers to the office every day and tag others, challenging them to do the same.
When you post about World Environment Day on social media, make sure to use the #WorldEnvironmentDay and #BeatPlasticPollution hashtags and mention
@unenvironment.
3 For June 5, World Environment Day: clean up the world
Choose an area to clean up: For World Environment Day, we are encouraging all government partners, embassies and ministers to actively engage in the issues surrounding plastic waste, and to lead by example by getting involved in a clean-up.
This could be along a river, an area near the government offices or a specific beach that is particularly polluted with plastic waste. While clean-ups may only address the plastic issue at the end of its life cycle, they are a great way for people to see the extent of plastic waste first-hand and understand the magnitude of the problem.
Tips to get you started
▪ Identify your area and register it: Identify a particularly polluted area that you want to prioritize for a clean-up. Once you know where you will be doing the clean-up, publicize the event and encourage citizens and local groups to get involved, and register the area on the World Environment Day website.
▪ Get your team on board: Set a date for the clean-up – it could be a morning the weekend before 5 June or on World Environment Day itself. Invite your staff, partners, neighbouring organizations and suppliers to get involved in the clean-up. The more the merrier!
▪ Download the app: This year, we are working with Litterati to track the plastic waste that gets collected. Download the app at
www.litterati.org and register what you collect so that it is included in the global total.
▪ Get the kit you need: Whether this is gloves, bags, neon vests or litter pickers, get the materials you need to go and collect plastic waste. You may also need drinks and refreshments to keep your team going.
▪ Sort the waste: Organize the waste you collect by type and have a plan for how it can be recycled.
▪ Invite the media, and businesses and organizations: Get the local media involved to cover your clean-up. Why not also ask local bottling companies to come along so they can get involved and understand what more needs to be done?
▪ Take a photo and share it with us and on social media: Let us know how you got on – share a photo of your collection efforts, telling us what type of waste you collected and how much it weighed, using the #WorldEnvironmentDay and #BeatPlasticPollution hashtags.
▪ Leave a legacy: Once you have finished the clean-up, why not leave a sign that lets people know the area was declared plastic-waste free for World Environment Day? This way, we can hopefully keep it this way and turn the tide on plastic!
What to do next
To help spread the word about World Environment Day, we encourage you to download the brand toolkit and use the available social media materials on the World Environment Day website. Here you will be able to:
1 Register your activity: If you register, we can then promote your work on all our digital platforms.
2 Download materials: These include the brand toolkit with all the logos, social media assets and more.
3 Find out more on the issue of marine plastic litter at the Clean Seas website: To address the crisis facing our oceans, UN Environment launched the #CleanSeas campaign, which has already seen over 40 governments commit to act on this issue and 70,000 individual actions.
Contacts:
Register your event on [email protected] or get in touch with specific colleagues running the regional plans for the day:
UN Environnent HQJoyce [email protected]
AfricaMohamed [email protected]
Latin AmericaMaria Amparo [email protected]
North AmericaLaura [email protected]
EuropeAlejandro [email protected]
West AsiaMelanie [email protected]
Asia PacificIsabelle [email protected]
www.unenvironment.orgwww.worldenvironmentday.global#worldenvironmentday#beatplasticpollution@unenvironment
