# Nearly 200 nations promise to stop ocean plastic waste

**URL:** <https://forum.orgones.co.uk/t/nearly-200-nations-promise-to-stop-ocean-plastic-waste/2448>\
**Category:** Positive Changes That Are Occurring\
**Created:** [October 12, 2018, 4:11pm UTC](https://forum.orgones.co.uk/t/nearly-200-nations-promise-to-stop-ocean-plastic-waste/2448 "2018-10-12T16:11:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Adam](https://forum.orgones.co.uk/user_avatar/forum.orgones.co.uk/adam/32/3_2.png) [@Adam](https://forum.orgones.co.uk/u/Adam)\
**Post date:** [October 12, 2018, 4:11pm UTC](https://forum.orgones.co.uk/t/nearly-200-nations-promise-to-stop-ocean-plastic-waste/2448/1 "2018-10-12T16:11:52Z")

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> Nearly 200 countries signed a U.N. resolution in Nairobi on Wednesday to eliminate plastic pollution in the sea, a move some delegates hoped would pave the way to a legally binding treaty.
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> If current pollution rates continue, there will be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050, said the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) which organized the meeting.
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> Eight million tonnes of plastic - bottles, packaging and other waste - are dumped into the ocean every year, killing marine life and entering the human food chain, UNEP added.
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> “There is very strong language in this resolution,” Norway’s environment minister, Vidar Helgesen, told Reuters.
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> “We now have an agreement to explore a legally binding instrument and other measures and that will be done at the international level over the next 18 months.”
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> Norway, which initiated the resolution, has seen the evidence of the damage the pollution causes first hand, he said.
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> “We found micro plastics inside mussels, which is something we like to eat,” Helgesen added. “In January this year, a fairly rare species of whale was stranded on a beach because of exhaustion and they simply had to kill it. In its tummy they found 30 plastic bags.”
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> China is the biggest producer of plastic waste but has started making efforts to cut down, UNEP head Erik Solheim said.

[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-environment-un-pollution/more-than-200-nations-promise-to-stop-ocean-plastic-waste-idUSKBN1E02F7](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-environment-un-pollution/more-than-200-nations-promise-to-stop-ocean-plastic-waste-idUSKBN1E02F7)