This document discusses the global plastic pollution crisis. It notes that the world's oceans are polluted with over 5 trillion pieces of microplastics and that one garbage truck worth of plastic is dumped into the ocean every minute. The plastic pollution is contaminating the food chain, water supply, and humans are ingesting plastic particles. The plastic production is largely dependent on fossil fuels and a massive expansion of plastic production capacity is planned that could undermine efforts to reduce plastic pollution. The document calls for governments and companies to take action to reduce single-use plastics and transition toward more sustainable circular economic systems to address the plastic pollution crisis.

1. Von Hernandez
Global Coordinator #breakfreefromplastic
von@breakfreefromplastic.org

2. The Age of Overshoot
• Mindless growth and
consumption are straining the
Earth’s carrying capacity,
depleting natural capital and
outpacing the biosphere’s
capacity to renew itself and
support life

3. Our Ecological Footprint
• Global demand for natural resources has doubled since 1966
• High income countries have a footprint 5 times greater than low
income countries
• The Earth’s ability to absorb waste and pollution is increasingly being
challenged by rising consumption and corresponding throughput of
energy and materials
• The richest 20% of the world’s population consume over 80% of
global output
• Americans and Western Europeans are to blame in the first instance,
but developing countries are catching up rapidly

5. The Plastic Pollution Crisis
• The world’s oceans are polluted with more than five trillion
pieces of microplastics!
• One garbage truck worth of plastic is getting dumped into
the ocean every minute.
• Assuming this trend continues, four trucks worth will be
dumped a minute by 2050, with seafood lovers ingesting up
to 780,000 pieces of plastic a year by the end of the century.
• Humans are ingesting 11,000 tiny pieces of plastics a year
with unknown health consequences.

6. The Plastic Pollution Crisis
• Plastic fibres have been found in tap and bottled water around the
world. Billions of people globally are drinking water contaminated by
plastic particles.
• New evidence pointing to contamination of beer, honey and sugar.
• Sea salt is contaminated with plastic.
• Plastic is contaminating our food chain and our bodies. Everybody is
exposed to some degree at any given time.
• The health impact of ingesting plastic is not known. Scientists have
struggled to research the impact of plastic on the human body, because
they cannot find a control group of humans who have not been exposed.
• Continued production and use of plastics in general and in the
environment will likely increase exposure,

7. #BreakFreeFromPlastic is a
global movement envisioning a
future free of plastic pollution.
Since its launch in September
2016, over 900 non-
governmental organizations
from across the world have
joined the movement to
demand massive reductions in
single-use plastics and to push
for lasting solutions to the
plastic pollution crisis.
These organizations share the
common values of
environmental protection and
social justice, which guide their
work at the community level
and represent a global, unified
vision.
www.breakfreefromplastic.org

8. “
”
We believe in a world where the land, sky, oceans, and
water are home to an abundance of life, not an abundance
of plastic, and where… the principles of environmental
justice, social justice, public health, and human
rights lead government policy, not the demands
of elites and corporations…
This is a future we are creating together.
~From the Break Free From Plastic vision statement,
adopted in Tagaytay, Philippines, July 2016

9. … and on a strategy to get there
* Change the dominant narrative
* Change corporate behaviour * Build zero waste cities
* Work in synergy with other movements

10. THE LINEAR SOCIETY
Resources
Production
Consumption
WASTE
Waste Disposal Industry
Since the Industrial Revolution, we have imposed a linear
society on a planet that functions in circles.

11. Ash Landfill
MIX
INCINERATE
S E P A R A T E
Reuse Recycle Compost Toxic
Removal
DISCARDED MATERIALS
Screening
Facility
Residue
Landfill
BETTER INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
MIX
Raw Waste
Landfill

15. Highlight the problem of
single-use plastics that are
ending up in our oceans,
beaches, roads and
waterways;

16. Put a spotlight on the role
of companies and
corporations in
perpetuating this crisis
through their use of single
use plastics as well as zero
to low-value packaging
(e.g. sachets) that typically
end up polluting the
environment;

18. Encourage cities to address the problem by adopting a Zero
Waste approach through at-source waste segregation,
composting and recycling schemes.

19. • Waste Audit : We looked at the
composition and percentages of
waste materials polluting
beaches like Freedom Island -
allowing us to identify the most
problematic materials;
• We then performed a Brand Audit
of the non-recyclable plastic
packaging that we found in the
collected waste, to surface and
identify the companies with the
most number of branded plastic
products polluting Freedom Island.
NOT YOUR TYPICAL BEACH CLEANUP!

20. Plastic Waste
49.33%
Diapers/Sanitary
Napkins
16.45%
Textiles
3.12%
Glass
5.22%
Hazardous
0.32%
Others
25.56%
Waste Audit Results

21. Polystyrene
10.80%
PET Plastic
3.09%
Drinking Straws
3.22%
Hard Plastic
4.52%
Plastic Bag/ labo
45.55%
Single-Layer Packaging
10.67%
Multi-Layer Packaging
22.15%
Types of Collected Plastic Waste

22. Plastic
waste,
1,039.3 kilos
or 49.33%
single/multi-layer,
32.82%
Hard Plastic
4.52%
Polystyrene
10.80%
PET Plastic,
3.09%
#BreakFreeFromPlastic
volunteers counted a
total of 54,260 pieces
during the brand audit.

25. AIR
WATER
WILDLIFE
BODIES
AIR
WATER
WILDLIFE
BODIES
AIR
WATER
WILDLIFE
BODIES
AIR
WATER
WILDLIFE
BODIES
AIR
WATER
WILDLIFE
BODIES

29. Why?• 99% of plastics are derived from fossil fuel feedstocks; and demand
massive amounts of energy to produce.
• Plastics production is overwhelmingly concentrated in areas where
key inputs are cheapest—the regions where fossil fuels are produced
or significant refining capacity exists.

33. • By 2025, production capacity projected to grow by 1/3rd
for both ethylene and propylene.
• This new
capacity
would lock in
a massive
expansion of
cheap plastic
production
for decades.
• If the boom is not addressed, it could undermine
efforts to reduce plastics use and pollution.

34. Era of Fossil Fuels Must End
• Fossil fuel production
effectively subsidizes plastic
and petrochemical production
• Phasing out fossil fuels in
response to climate change will
shift major costs to plastic
producers.
• Plastic production will become
more expensive as fossil fuels
are phased out.

35. The Plastics Industry Agenda
"We understand that
some consumers view
packaging as waste. We
want to help consumers
feel good about plastic
packaging..."
-Jeff Wooster, Dow, Plastics
Today, January 2013

36. the Scale of the challenge
u Plastics industry projections call for exponential growth
u More waste, less recyclable
u They say we just have to “manage” this stuff better – build
incinerators that would put plastic pollution into the air
u “We are not content to simply manage a problem
created by someone else, but are seeking to transform
the system…”
DIAPERS JUNK FOOD PACKAGING
OLD FLIP FLOPS MULTIMATERIAL PACKAGING
STYROFOAM

37. OUR DEMANDS
u Government policy to reduce and eliminate single-use
plastics and transition towards circular economic systems ;
u Implement and mainstream zero waste programs in our
communities;
u NO to incineration or waste to energy proposals which will
transform this problem into a toxic and air pollution crisis
and constribute to greenhouse gas emissions;
u For companies to stop the production, distribution and use
of single use and zero value packaging for their products.

39. 10 major cities starting model programs, 89 municipalities engaged
in 2017

40. Plastics in the health Care sector
• Being part of a large, vocal, high profile, successful global movement;
• No incineration of plastics/ medical waste
• Looking at procurement practices that will help transition companies
towards innovation in products and delivery systems - such that single use
products become the exception rather than the norm;
• Cities recognize and promote the environmental and financial benefits of
zero waste systems; and
• Single use plastic is widely regarded as something to avoid, rather than the
acceptable price paid for a culture of convenience.

41. The Story of a Spoon
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg-E1FtjaxY