Earth Day Network Launches Global Campaign to End Plastic Pollution

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Earth Day Network (EDN), the global coordinator of Earth Day, announced the launching of a global campaign to End Plastic Pollution. We will be educating and mobilizing citizens, and influencing governments and corporations to achieve large-scale reductions in plastic pollution around the world. Our intention is to have Earth Day 2018 mark the first step toward the ultimate goal of replacing fossil fuel based plastics with nonpolluting materials.

Plastic pollution is not just an environmental crisis, but also as one of the most urgent public health, human rights and social justice issues of our day. The campaign will build solidarity among all people of the world, and promote solutions that hold producers and leaders accountable. The campaign will use Earth Day 2018 as the focal point for raising awareness, and changing attitudes and behaviors that will contribute to reducing and eliminating plastic pollution.

"Plastic pollution is real and growing threat to our planet that rivals climate change," said Kathleen Rogers, President of Earth Day Network. "From injuring marine life to disrupting human hormones, plastic pollution is having a devastating impact. The good news is we can solve this problem. Citizens can play an activist role in demanding that corporations and governments take actions to end plastic pollution."

The End Plastic Pollution campaign will include these key components:

• Educating citizens to help them change their own behaviors and those of their communities.
• Engaging business leaders to establish new commitments to reduce and eliminate plastic pollution.
• Working with governments to build support for a global framework to prevent and manage plastic pollution.

The End Plastic Pollution campaign is part of a five-year effort that began in 2016, builds up to the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day in 2020 and continues for the next decade.

ABOUT EARTH DAY NETWORK
The first Earth Day on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. Growing out of the first Earth Day, Earth Day Network, the world's largest recruiter to the environmental movement, works with tens of thousands of partners in 192 countries to build environmental democracy and to broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement. For more information, visit us at www.earthday.org and follow us on Twitter @EarthDayNetwork

Contact: Thomas Casey, VP Communications, 202.518.0044, [email protected]

SOURCE Earth Day Network