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50th Anniversary of World Environment Day 2023

Context:The World Environment Day, led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has been held annually on June 5, since 1973. The date was chosen by the UN General Assembly during the historic 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment – considered to be the first world conference to make the environment a major issue. Over the years, it has grown to become the largest global platform for environmental outreach, with millions of people from across the world engaging to protect the planet.

History

• In 1972, a conference held by the United Nations in Stockholm was the first UN conference which had the environment as its major agenda.
• It also recognised the right to live in a healthy environment as the basic right of any human being.
• The conference became a historic global effort to protect and conserve the environment, leading to the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme.
• Moreover, this event also marked the formal declaration of a universal day for the environment – June 5.
• The UNEP, since then, has undertaken several global efforts in their endeavour to protect our natural world.
• The first World  Environment Day was celebrated in 1973 with the theme “Only One Earth”. Since then, several pressing environmental themes have been undertaken. Some of these themes are’Only One Future for Our Children’ (1979), ‘A Tree for Peace’ (1986), ‘For Life on Earth – Save Our Seas’ (1998), ‘Connect with the World Wide Web of Life’ (2001), among many others.

#BeatPlasticPollution

• Hosted by Côte d’Ivoire and supported by the Netherlands, this year’s World Environment Day campaign is aimed towards discussing and implementing solutions to the problem of plastic pollution – one of the most prescient issues of our time. The 45th World Environment Day with the same theme was also held under the leadership of India.
• According to UN data, more than 400 million tonnes of plastic is produced every year worldwide, half of which is designed to be used only once. Of that, less than 10 per cent is recycled. Consequently, an estimated 19-23 million tonnes end up in lakes, rivers and seas annually.
• Studies have found that discarded or burnt single-use plastic harms human health and biodiversity, while polluting every ecosystem from mountain tops to the ocean floor.
• This year’s world environment day is a reminder that people’s actions on plastic pollution matters – steps taken by governments and businesses to tackle plastic pollution are the consequence of this action.

Plastic pollution glossary

• The word plastic is derived from the Greek word plastikos, meaning “capable of being shaped or moulded.”
• It refers to a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient with their defining quality being their plasticity – the ability of a solid material to undergo permanent deformation in response to applied forces. This makes them extremely adaptable, capable of being shaped as per requirement.
• Most modern plastics are derived from fossil fuel-based chemicals like natural gas or petroleum. However, recently, variants made from renewable materials, such as corn or cotton derivatives have also emerged.
• Around 70 per cent of global plastic production is concentrated in six major polymer types – referred collectively as commodity plastics. These include: Polyethylene terephthalate or PET, High-density polyethylene or HDPE, Polyvinyl chloride or PVC, Low-density polyethylene or LDPE, Polypropylene or PP, and Polystyrene or PS. Each of these have different properties and can be identified by their resin identification code (RIC) denoted by symbols found on plastic products.
• While plastics have revolutionised human civilisation – today, they are everywhere, from automobiles to toys, health devices to packaging – their adverse environmental impact has been alarming. This is primarily due to their slow decomposition rate in natural ecosystems. Decomposition rate refers to the rate at which a material breaks down into its constituent parts through chemical processes – plastics are remarkably durable in this sense.
• While they do crumble into smaller particles, these particles themselves do not break down into more simpler substances.
• Instead, what we get are microplastics – officially defined as plastics less than five millimetres in diameter. There are two categories of microplastics. Primary microplastics are tiny particles designed for commercial use, such as in cosmetics or textiles.
• On the other hand, secondary microplastics are particles that are a product of the breakdown of larger plastic items due to exposure to environmental factors such as sun’s radiation or ocean’s waves.
• The problem with microplastics, like all plastics, is that they do not break down easily into more harmless particles. Instead, they find their way across the planet, from the depths of the Pacific Ocean to the heights of the Himalayas. According to the most recent global estimates, an average human consumes at least 50,000 microplastic particles annually due to contamination of the food chain, potable water, and air.
• Notably, microplastics contain a number of toxic chemicals which pose severe risks to human health.
• The biggest health risk associated is with the chemical BPA or Bisphenol A , which is used to harden the plastic. BPA contaminates food and drinks, causing alterations in liver function, insulin resistance, foetal development in pregnant women, the reproductive system and brain function.
• The largest collection of plastics and microplastics in the ocean is in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Also known as the trash vortex, it is located between California and Japan, and formed due to converging ocean currents.
• Every year, as plastics enter water bodies and find their way into the ocean, they show remarkable resiliency, floating around where the current takes them until they get stuck in a gyre or large circular ocean currents. The largest such gyre is in the Pacific and hence results in the collection of plastics in the region. As per estimates, the GPGP covers a surface area of 1.6 million sq km– roughly half the size of India! There are other, smaller such garbage patches in other oceans.
• The GPGP comprises majorly of single-use plastics. Broadly speaking, single-use is a term which can refer to any plastic items which are either designed to be used for one time by the consumer before they are thrown away or recycled, or likely to be used in this way. Many countries, including India, have passed legislation to either ban or severely restrict their use.