Petition

Strong Global Plastics Treaty Now


New Petition!

Australia’s oceans and beaches are choking on plastic pollution. We urgently need a strong Global Plastics Treaty!

Over 250 kg of plastic leaks into Australia’s environment every minute.¹ There are now up to 40,000 pieces of plastic per square metre on the most polluted parts of Australia’s coastline.²

The less plastic humans produce, the less plastic ends up polluting our beaches and oceans.³

Right now, we have a unique opportunity to end plastic pollution here in Australia and around the world. Hundreds of countries are negotiating a Global Plastics Treaty. The plastics treaty could create new binding laws to tackle the growing plastic pollution crisis. But it’s at risk of failing.

Over 99% plastics are made from fossil fuels.⁴ Some oil-producing nations and plastic industry lobbyists are stalling Global Plastics Treaty negotiations.

So far, the Australian Government has taken a strong position in global negotiations. We need them to keep going.

Sign your name to call on the Australian Government to remain strong and negotiate a Global Plastics Treaty that the oceans and people of the world desperately need.

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To the Honourable Minister for the Environment,

We know the value of Australia’s beautiful coastlines and oceans, and what is at risk if the Global Plastics Treaty fails. We, the undersigned, urge the Australian Government to hold firm against the influence of fossil fuel and plastic industry lobbyists, maintain a high ambition, and support a strong Global Plastics Treaty that addresses the full lifecycle of plastics, including plastic fishing and aquaculture gear.

Plastic pollution is an escalating environmental disaster that will not end unless the world takes collective action.

Our oceans are inundated with plastic fragments that are maiming, strangling, starving and suffocating marine creatures.

The Australian Government has a responsibility to advocate for, and implement a strong Global Plastics Treaty that addresses the full lifecycle of plastics. We’re calling on the Australian Government to:

  1. Maintain high ambition and publicly advocate for a strong Global Plastics Treaty that ends plastic pollution, cuts plastic production and consumption and bans needless plastics.
  2. Finalise a strong Global Plastics Treaty that addresses the full lifecycle of plastic fishing and aquaculture gear, including design, use, safe retrieval and responsible disposal.
  3. Implement domestic actions to end plastic pollution, including design rules, bans on unnecessary packaging, and funding clean-ups of plastic pollution from international sources.

Australia has the opportunity to lead on this issue and set an example for the world. By supporting a comprehensive, effective, and enforceable Global Plastics Treaty, you can help ensure a cleaner, healthier future for our oceans, marine life, and future generations.

 

Impacts of Ocean Plastic Pollution
  • Over 80% of green turtles in Queensland have ingested plastic.⁵ Baby sea turtles have been washing back up with plastic in their stomachs after hatching on Australian beaches.⁶
  • 9 in 10 of the world’s seabirds have ingested plastic.⁷ Young seabird chicks on Australia’s Lord Howe Island were found to have signs of brain damage after eating high amounts of plastics fed to them by their parents.⁸
  • Commercial fishing nets that cover an area larger than Tasmania are estimated to be lost to the ocean every year.⁹ Up to 15,000 sea turtles were caught in 8,690 ghost fishing nets across northern Australia in just seven years.¹⁰
  • Microplastics are inundating every part of the ocean. Microplastics have been found in the depths of the Mariana Trench,¹¹ in the krill blue whales feed on near Antarctica,¹² in nearly two-thirds of the fish in Australian waters,¹³ and in the shellfish we eat.¹⁴

These are just some of the known impacts plastic pollution has on marine life. We must cut plastic pollution at the source through a strong Global Plastics Treaty.

 

References
  1. O’Farrell, K., Harney, F., & Chakma, P. (2021). Australian Plastics Flows and Fates Study 2019-20 – National Report. Prepared for the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.
  2. Hardesty, B. D., Lawson, T., van der Velde, T., Lansdell, M., & Wilcox, C. (2016). Estimating quantities and sources of marine debris at a continental scale. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 15(1), 18–25.
  3. Cowger, W., Willis, K. A., Bullock, S., Conlon, K., Emmanuel, J., Erdle, L. M., Eriksen, M., Farrelly, T. A., Hardesty, B. D., Kerge, K., Li, N., Li, Y., Liebman, A., Tangri, N., Thiel, M., Villarrubia-Gómez, P., Walker, T. R., & Wang, M. (2024). Global producer responsibility for plastic pollution. Science Advances, 10(17).
  4. CIEL. (2019). Fossil Fuels & Plastic.
  5. Duncan, E. M., Broderick, A. C., Critchell, K., Galloway, T. S., Hamann, M., Limpus, C. J., Lindeque, P. K., Santillo, D., Tucker, A. D., Whiting, S., Young, E. J., & Godley, B. J. (2021). Plastic Pollution and Small Juvenile Marine Turtles: A Potential Evolutionary Trap. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8.
  6. “We’ve never seen this sort of event”: Dead, sick baby turtles wash up in Queensland after eating plastic. (2021, February 17). ABC News.
  7. Wilcox, C., Van Sebille, E., & Hardesty, B. D. (2015). Threat of Plastic Pollution to Seabirds Is global, pervasive, and Increasing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(38), 11899–11904.
  8. de Jersey, A. M., Lavers, J. L., Bond, A. L., Wilson, R., Zosky, G. R., & Rivers-Auty, J. (2025). Seabirds in crisis: Plastic ingestion induces proteomic signatures of multiorgan failure and neurodegeneration. Science Advances, 11(11).
  9. Richardson, K., Hardesty, B. D., Vince, J., & Wilcox, C. (2022). Global estimates of fishing gear lost to the ocean each year. Science Advances, 8(41).
  10. Wilcox, C., Heathcote, G., Goldberg, J., Gunn, R., Peel, D., & Hardesty, B. D. (2014). Understanding the sources and effects of abandoned, lost, and discarded fishing gear on marine turtles in northern Australia. Conservation Biology, 29(1), 198–206.
  11. Peng, X., Chen, M., Chen, S., Dasgupta, S., Xu, H., Ta, K., Du, M., Li, J., Guo, Z., & Bai, S. (2018). Microplastics contaminate the deepest part of the world’s ocean. Geochemical Perspectives Letters, 9, 1–5.
  12. Kahane-Rapport, S. R., Czapanskiy, M. F., Fahlbusch, J. A., Friedlaender, A. S., Calambokidis, J., Hazen, E. L., Goldbogen, J. A., & Savoca, M. S. (2022). Field measurements reveal exposure risk to microplastic ingestion by filter-feeding megafauna. Nature Communications, 13(1), 6327.
  13. Wootton, N., Ferreira, M., Reis-Santos, P., & Gillanders, B. M. (2021). A Comparison of Microplastic in Fish From Australia and Fiji. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8.
  14. Klein, J. R., Beaman, J., Kirkbride, K. P., Patten, C., & Burke da Silva, K. (2022). Microplastics in intertidal water of South Australia and the mussel Mytilus spp.; the contrasting effect of population on concentration. Science of the Total Environment, 831, 154875.

 

 

Feature image: A green sea turtle hatchling runs down the beach after hatching on the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia.