Plastics and the circular economy
This topic area shows how the circular economy can help keep plastic in the economy and out of the...
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This session was streamed as part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Summit 2020 event, held on the 9th and 10th September.
The Foundation’s perspective on the Breaking The Plastic Wave study. Breaking the Plastic Wave, one of the most comprehensive and analytically robust studies ever produced on ocean plastics, was released in July 2020 by The Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ, with thought partners the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, University of Oxford, University of Leeds, and Common Seas. The Foundation published its perspective and set out clear urgent actions in response to the study’s findings. Breaking the Plastic Wave confirms that the circular economycircular economyA systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. It is based on three principles, driven by design: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature. vision is the only way to address plastic waste and pollution at the source, while also resulting in better economic, climate, and social outcomes. It shows that to realise this vision, we need to collectively raise our ambition level, and stresses the need to act now, as an implementation delay of five years will result in an additional 80 million tonnes of plastic entering our oceans between now and 2040.
Summit 20 — Working towards a resilient and prosperous economic recovery
At Summit 2020, held on the 9th and 10th September, our panel of speakers discussed how circular economy solutions can be scaled at speed to tackle global challenges such as climate change and biodiversity loss, and how we can create strategies for better growth — benefiting people, and the environment.
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