January is Int’l Zero Waste Month

Environmentalists worldwide are stepping up their efforts to call business and global leaders to phase out single-use plastic to address the plastic pollution and climate crises.

Onsite and online actions were organized in key cities around the world on 6 January to mount the Refuse Single Use Day. Led by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Zero Waste youth and their allies expressed their demand to eliminate the production of SUPs.

Around 400 million tons of plastic are produced every year, yet less than 10 percent are recycled. Continued plastic production and consumption heats up global climate temperatures, depletes the planet’s resources, suffocates the environment and creates public health issues, feeds incinerators, and chokes landfills and oceans.

The most problematic form of plastic is SUP, which is meant for onetime use only, such as cups, cutleries, bottle drinks, plastic stirrers, and plastic bags.

Refuse Single Use Day is the opening activity of the International Zero Waste Month, as GAIA, together with its members and allies, double down on their commitment to create a global movement that puts an end to waste pollution. The IZWM is a historic moment for the movement, built on its decades-long campaign to design and manage products that can help eliminate the volume and toxicity of waste materials. In 2014, then Philippine President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III designated January every year as National Zero Waste Month through Presidential Proclamation No. 760. The observance also coincides with the signing anniversary of Republic Act 9003, known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000’ — both efforts envisioned to address long-term waste pollution.