Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS EXPLAINER

Plastic pollution: Three problems that a global treaty could solve

Specialists discuss strategies that could help stop plastics contaminating the environment.
  1. Tosin Thompson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

A man walks on a mountain of plastic bottles as he carries a sack of them at the dump in Nairobi, Kenya.

Credit: Ben Curtis/AP/Shutterstock

Plastic is one of the fastest growing materials and production is on course to double, to more than one billion tonnes a year, by 2050. With that, will come more pollution. This week, delegates from more than 150 countries are expected to meet in Uruguay to begin negotiations for a historic global agreement to end plastic pollution.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03835-w

References

  1. Amato-Lourenço, L. F. et al. Sci. Total Environ. 749, 141676 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Nor, N. H. M. et al. Environ. Sci. Technol. 55, 5084–5096 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Di Nisio, A. et al. J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 104 1259–1271 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Joensen, U. N, et al. Environ Health Perspect 117, 923-927 (2009).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links