Jamaican students to ACT on finding solutions to plastic pollution

This is a joint United Nations initiative aimed at highlighting the urgent need for action to reduce plastic pollution, which is a major challenge in the Caribbean and globally. The Caribbean is the biggest plastic polluter per capita in the world (Ritchie & Roser, 2018). In 2015 alone, an estimated 79 million tons of solid waste, including 1.3 million tons of plastics, were introduced into the coastal waters of the Wider Caribbean Region (UNEP CEP, 2019).

Plastic pollution threatens the health of both people and the planet and negatively contributes to the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste. Through the “Beat Plastic Pollution JA” competition, Jamaican students will demonstrate the urgent need to work across the plastic lifecycle and articulate different strategies to reduce and reuse plastic. They will showcase short videos of school activities addressing plastic pollution or pitch a “Beat Plastic Pollution JA” project that they would like to see implemented.

This student-initiative is being supported by the UNEP Caribbean Sub-Regional Office, UNEP Cartagena Convention Secretariat, UNESCO, UNICEF, UN Women and FAO.

“This project is part of ongoing support by UNEP to the Government of Jamaica, who signed our Protocol Concerning Pollution from Land-Based Sources and Activities (LBS Protocol) to the Cartagena Convention in 2010, committing to reduce marine pollution from plastics and solid waste. New regional UNEP projects funded by the Global Environment Facility (over 1 million US dollars) and the EU will promote and accelerate the transition to a circular economy for plastics in Jamaica.” - Christopher Corbin, Coordinator - UNEP Cartagena Convention Secretariat

Students will be asked to submit their videos and a completed talent release form to unep-zerowaste-caribbean@un.org. Their videos will also be shared on the social media platforms of the participating UN agencies in Jamaica.

Sources:

Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser (2018) - "Plastic Pollution". Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution' [Online Resource]

UNEP-CEP (2019) - “SOCAR - An assessment of Marine Pollution from Land-based Sources and Activities in the Wider Caribbean Region”. 126 pp.

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