The COVID pandemic brought about a surge in online ordering of goods around the world. That means a rise in plastic packaging to protect those orders when they're posted. Less than 14 per cent of the 86 million tonnes of plastic packaging produced globally is recycled. The vast majority is sent to landfill, is incinerated, or ends up in waterways.
David Ritter is the CEO of Greenpeace Australia Pacific. He says the global take-up of face masks has also had a huge impact on the environment, when not disposed of properly.
More than 52 billion single-use face masks were produced annually during the pandemic; 1.6 billion entered our oceans.
"Masks are made of a variety of plastics, including polypropylene, polyethylene and vinyl that take hundreds of years to break down. They're a danger to marine life that can become tangled in those masks, or their a danger to marine life that may mistake those masks for food.
The United Nations just voted to create an intergovernmental committee to negotiate and finalise a legally binding plastics treaty by 2024.
Supporters described the commitment as the most important environmental decision taken by the UN in years.
Meanwhile in Sydney, Vikram Davé says he and his wife are trying to raise one and a half million dollars to expand their business in the United States.
"We have over 40,000 customers globally at the moment, and we just opened our warehouse in the US. We're just trying to expand that market as well."
