What is the Environment Day in 2023?

2023 is the 50th Environment Day.

This year’s slogan is “Reduce Plastic, Pick Up Plastic”, which aims to call on people to take action to reduce plastic pollution. More than 8 million tons of plastic waste enter the world's oceans every year, seriously endangering the health of marine ecosystems and threatening human livelihoods.

Marine plastic pollution has a wide range of impacts on the ecosystem, such as predators accidentally ingesting plastic fragments, accumulation of plastic waste leading to coastline pollution, plastic particles decomposing in the water, and contaminating the marine food chain. These problems will not only affect marine ecosystems, but also affect global food security and human health.

In response to this severe environmental challenge, one of the focuses of the negotiations for the United Nations Convention on Plastic Pollution is to formulate binding measures to prevent further deterioration of marine plastic pollution.

Methods to curb plastic pollution at the source:

First, reduce the use of disposable plastic products. For example, when going to the supermarket to buy things, we can bring our own reusable shopping bags, drinking cups, tableware, etc. to reduce the use of disposable plastic products. Some plastic bags can be reused to reduce the overall consumption of disposable plastic bags.

The second is to classify and recycle plastic waste. We can classify and recycle plastic waste according to the daily garbage classification requirements to reduce the amount of plastic waste entering the environment and the ocean. In particular, it is recommended to separate recyclable plastic waste from other waste, as this will help send plastic waste to recycling stations for reuse.