Every year, a date is calculated, indicating the moment of using the annual capital of the Earth’s renewable resources. It applies to every country in the world separately. This is the so-called Ecological Debt Day, designated to make us realize how great the pressure we put on ecosystems is. This year, the Ecological Debt Day for Poland falls on May 2, and for the whole world – on July 28.

To calculate the date of Ecological Debt Day, e.g. UN reports, containing a number of up-to-date data on the state of the environment. Variables such as differences in carbon emissions and the biological capacity of forests and the recovery of fish populations in fisheries are taken into account. The image obtained in this way is to reveal the entire ecological footprint that we leave behind by meeting our needs – both those necessary for life and those that we are definitely able to reduce.

Although public awareness of the deteriorating state of the environment is growing, we still cannot sufficiently stop the most important environmental crises. As a global community, we draw on fresh water reserves, the richness of forests, fertile soils and fisheries without thinking, as if they were inexhaustible. Even building sand, a resource that seems so ubiquitous, is running out.

The extraction and consumption of goods based on the Earth’s natural resources is constantly increasing, while these resources are disappearing before our eyes, and their growing scarcity is already having serious consequences for our lives. The change that must take place should be systemic and start with our way of thinking about the environment and the economy. Mining needs must take into account the regenerative capacity of the Earth, and the economy should correct its biggest mistakes – wasting precious resources and leaving behind gigantic amounts of waste.

How to limit the use of resources and reduce environmental pollution, especially with plastic waste? We need to change the way we think about the goods we produce. For many years, the world has been dominated by a linear model of the economy, which consists in the fact that we use the extracted raw materials to produce something that we then use and throw away. This approach exacerbates not only the pollution crisis, but also the other two – biodiversity loss and the climate crisis.

An alternative, and in fact a necessary direction in which we should move, is a circular economy based on efficient resource management. It is a model of production and consumption that is about sharing, borrowing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products for as long as possible. According to the principles of circularity, thinking about the product life cycle should start at the design stage, with a sense of responsibility for the further fate of the raw materials used. In this way, we extend the life cycle of products, which in practice means reducing waste to a minimum.

– The UNEP analysis shows that by 2040, the transition to a circular economy alone can reduce the amount of plastic entering the oceans by more than 80 percent, reduce the production of primary plastic by 55 percent. and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25%. This perspective confirms that the game is worth the candle – says Maria Andrzejewska, director general of UNEP/GRID-Warsaw.

As every year, on June 5, UNEP/GRID-Warsaw invites you to celebrate World Environment Day (WED). On this day, we direct our attention towards the relationship between people and nature and the challenges related to it. This year, more than usual, we will emphasize the problem of plastic pollution of the global environment.

The problem of environmental pollution with plastics has grown to alarming proportions. Every year, over 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced worldwide, half of which is single-use. Less than 10% of this weight is recycled. It is estimated that up to 23 million tons of plastic end up in lakes, rivers and seas every year!

This year, we will look for answers to how to close the plastic cycle – from production, through thoughtful design and use, to the use of waste as a raw material.

This year’s celebration will also be special because the tradition of its celebration reaches half a century. Cyclical celebrations of the World Environment Day were initiated by the United Nations in 1973 to commemorate the creation of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

Source: info. press

Source:https://odpowiedzialnybiznes.pl/aktualno%C5%9Bci/2-maja-wszyscy-w-polsce-zaciagamy-credit/

Supported by Norway through Norway Grants 2014-2021, in the frame of the Programme “Social Dialogue – Decent Work”.