World Environment Day 2025 calls for collective action to tackle plastic pollution.
Plastic pollution permeates every corner of the planet – even in our bodies in the form of microplastics. Microplastics – tiny plastic particles up to 5mm in diameter – find their way into food, water and air. It is estimated that each person on the planet consumes more than 50,000 plastic particles per year –and many more if inhalation is considered.
Microplastics in the seas now outnumber stars in our galaxy.
Globally, an estimated 11 million tonnes of plastic waste leak into aquatic ecosystems each year.
Discarded or burnt single-use plastic harms human health and biodiversity and pollutes every ecosystem from mountain tops to the ocean floor.
All of us can take action to refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, and rethink our plastics use.