The campaign of this year’s World Environment Day is marked under the theme ”Beat Plastic Pollution”, which is also an invitation to all of us for reaching global solutions in combating plastic waste pollution! Our planet Earth is choking on plastic. This is a very clear statement because plastic use tripled between the 1970s and 1990s not only in production but also as a waste, which progressed during the years of the 21st Century. Today, we are producing nearly 400 million tons of plastic waste each year. Plastic became present in every part of our human existence, and it especially became a threat to animal species and habitats among which we can highlight endangering of freshwater and marine habitats due to unprecedented plastic waste pollution. The consequences of plastic on the environment and organisms are not resolved completely because plastic is shredded into particles of microplastic that represent secondary contamination whose impact is yet to be determined.
Therefore, it is very important to highlight that in 2022 at the UN`s General Environment Assembly, all 193 UN Member States decided to end plastic pollution. However, that process is not simple and it requires a completely different approach which includes a circular plastics economy, to reduce in every part of the process the use of plastics and consequently the plastic waste production. With that approach, there still will be a significant volume of plastic that cannot make it into the circular process for the next 10 to 20 years mainly referring to the plastic which cannot be reused or recycled, and the plastic that is already in the environment.
In our National park, you can spot the waste disposal bins in which you can sort the waste, and we highly recommend you do that! Plitvice Lakes National Park is a part of the Plastic Free Croatia initiative, and our management is directed toward reducing plastic usage, and with that plastic waste! For more information go to:
