Three quarters People across 28 countries agree to ban single-use plastic: Report

An average of more than eight in 10 would like to see an international treaty to combat plastic pollution.

New Delhi: An average of three-quarters of people across 28 countries agree that single-use plastic should be banned as soon as possible, the ‘Attitudes towards single-use plastic’ survey by Ipsos revealed on Wednesday.

“Latin American and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries show the highest levels of agreement with banning single-use plastic, at 88 percent and 80 percent respectively, while North America has the lowest levels of agreement at 61 percent,” according to IPSOS poll of more than 20,000 people across 28 countries.

The poll said the highest levels of agreement with banning single-use plastics are seen in Colombia (89%), Chile and Mexico (both 88%), and Argentina and China (both 84%), and the lowest levels in Japan (37%), the United States (55%) and Canada (66%).

Vast majorities of people in all 28 countries agree that manufacturers and retailers should take responsibility for reducing, reusing, and recycling plastic packaging, with a global average of 85%.

Talking about the results,  Ipsos Australia Director, Stuart Clark, said, These results make it very clear that there is a strong consensus globally that single-use plastics should be taken out of circulation as quickly as possible.  The fact that there is such strong support for an international treaty to address the single-use plastics shows that people see this as a challenge that all countries have to solve together.

The Ipsos study will be featured by Plastic Feee July and WWF leading to the upcoming UN Environment Assembly (UNEA 5.2) summit on a new global treaty to reduce plastic waste.