This year, we celebrate World Environment Day on 5th June with the message “Beat Plastic Pollution”. The UN Environment Programme’s global campaign #BeatPlasticPollution is calling for global change and asking us to think about how we can change our daily lives to reduce the harm plastic pollution causes to the environment, wildlife, and human health.

Eleven million tons of plastic are disposed of into lakes, rivers, and seas worldwide every year, and another 13 million tons of plastic accumulate in soil every year. Today, plastic clogs our landfills, leaks into the ocean and is burned in toxic smoke, making it one of the most serious threats to the planet. Forecasts indicate that the world will use more than 516 million tons of plastic by 2025, and by 2060 – more than double this amount. Only 9% of plastic produced is recycled, making the need for sustainable alternatives and circular economic models more urgent than ever.

World Environment Day is the most important international day for promoting action aimed at protecting the environment. It is the most important holiday in the environmental calendar, which is marked annually since 1974. This year it focuses on the message that the sustainable way to tackle the problem of plastics is the circular economy. This means that we need to rethink the way plastics are designed, produced, and used. Plastic products must be designed and collected as waste so that they can be used more than once, recycled, and become a resource for the economy. This is a goal of European Union countries, which is shared by Bulgaria.

As every year, the Ministry of Environment and Water, together with thousands of people in Bulgaria and around the world, celebrate World Environment Day. The Ministry's teams across the country are undertaking 70 diverse initiatives, which involve thousands of children and young people and present a role model of partnership with local authorities and non-governmental organizations in the regions. You can see the program of initiatives HERE.

This year's World Environment Day is another opportunity to put sustainability at the center of the public agenda. With joint efforts - institutions, businesses, citizens - we can put an end to plastic pollution and redefine our relationship with nature.

More about the "Beat Plastic Pollution" campaign