On June 5, 2025, the world celebrated the annual World Environment Day. This year, an echoing voice rose from Jeju, Republic of Korea: “Before plastic pollution ends us, we must beat plastic pollution ourselves.” The theme of this year’s World Environment Day is neither abstract nor distant; it is visceral, urgent, and personal.
Led by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the global campaign mobilized millions under the banner #BeatPlasticPollution, with Korea’s Jeju Province at the heart of the official celebrations.
The symbolism of Jeju as the host of this year’s celebration is deliberate. This is a province where household waste must be separated at the source, where a deposit system for disposable cups is already in place, and where the regional government has set an ambitious goal: to be free of plastic pollution by 2040. It is, in many ways, a blueprint for what must now become global policy, a whole-of-society approach that targets plastics across their full life cycle.
Plastic pollution is not merely a blemish on beaches or a nuisance in landfills. It is a planetary crisis that has infiltrated every level of life on Earth, from mountaintops to ocean trenches, and from breast milk to bloodstreams. It contaminates our water, our food, and the very air we breathe. More than 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced each year; half is designed for single use, and less than 10% is recycled. An estimated 11 million tonnes leak into aquatic ecosystems annually. For comparison, that’s the weight of 2,200 Eiffel Towers dumped into rivers, lakes, and oceans every single year.
In his message for the Day, UN Secretary-General António Guterres didn’t mince words:
“Plastic waste clogs rivers, pollutes the ocean, and endangers wildlife. And as it breaks down into smaller and smaller parts, it infiltrates every corner of Earth: from the top of Mount Everest to the depths of the ocean; from human brains to human breastmilk.”
And yet, he offered hope: “There is a movement for urgent change… But we must go further, faster.”
Why This Matters Now
We are standing at the edge of irreversible harm. Without bold action, plastic waste entering aquatic systems is expected to nearly triple by 2040. Exposure to unsafe air will increase by 50% within the next decade. Climate catastrophe looms, unless we halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
The theme of this year’s observance #BeatPlasticPollution is not just a catchy campaign. It is a demand for transformation: refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, rethink. The science is clear. The tools exist. What remains is the political will and collective action to apply them on a large scale and at a rapid speed.
World Environment Day 2025 is also highly significant in its context. It comes exactly two months before nations resume negotiations on a global treaty to end plastic pollution, an agreement that began to take shape with the resolution passed in 2022. In November 2024, the Republic of Korea hosted the fifth round of these negotiations. The second part of that pivotal session resumes in Geneva from 5 to 14 August.
This is not theoretical diplomacy. This is the scaffolding for a plastic-free future.
Jeju Province: A Living Laboratory.
Jeju’s role in hosting the 2025 World Environment Day is more than ceremonial. It is a living, breathing example of circularity in action. The province has implemented a deposit system for disposable cups. Its waste management strategy demands strict separation and accountability. And its long-term plan to eliminate plastic pollution by 2040 stands as a north star for municipalities worldwide.
At the heart of Jeju’s success is a powerful coalition among the government, private sector, and citizenry working hand in hand. As Korea’s Vice Minister of Environment, Lee Byounghwa, said in Jeju: “Let us set aside the comfort of convenience and start with small actions, together. When everyone acts, change happens.”
The Global Response
More than 2,500 events took place around the world to mark the Day. From youth summits in India to cleanup campaigns in Mexico, the message was clear: the era of unchecked plastic production and disposal is over.
In Mexico, President Claudia Sheinbaum launched a National Strategy for Beach and Coast Cleanup and Conservation, intending to eliminate 100% of plastic waste from coastal zones by 2030. Meanwhile, global transportation hubs joined the movement, airports in Baghdad, Beijing, Brussels, Geneva, and Kansai broadcast messages about the plastic crisis to millions of travellers. Metro stations in Mexico City and Beijing followed suit. In New York City, World Environment Day messages lit up the iconic Times Square billboards, and Geneva’s Jet d’Eau fountain glowed green in solidarity.
Meanwhile, the Global Partnership on Plastic Pollution and Marine Litter (GPML) launched the Global Plastics Hub, a data-driven digital platform that provides a single point of access for information, research, and collaboration on marine litter and plastic pollution. The Hub aims to become the world’s go-to resource for turning evidence into action.
In India, UNEP’s Tide Turners Plastic Challenge hosted a national summit celebrating youth-led efforts to fight plastic waste. Since its inception in Kenya, Tide Turners has grown into one of the world’s largest youth environmental movements, with over 980,000 participants in more than 60 countries.
And in Chicago, the city skyline now bears a new mark of commitment: a 245-foot mural titled Stand Tall, unveiled on the Prudential Building. Curated by Street Art for Mankind (SAM) in collaboration with UNEP and the FAO, the piece is part of the global #EcosystemRestorationMurals campaign under the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
From Awareness to Accountability
Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon captured the mood best when he wrote in the Kukmin Daily: “World Environment Day on June 5th should be a turning point for governments, civil society, companies, the scientific community, and the future generation to take action together.”
This is not a matter of fine-tuning corporate social responsibility or policy. This is a civilizational imperative. Ending plastic pollution is not optional. It is essential to planetary health, public health, and long-term economic resilience.
Inger Andersen, UNEP’s Executive Director, made this abundantly clear during the official Jeju celebration:
“Ending plastic pollution is clearly a human health, planetary health, economic health, and business health imperative. But we cannot lean solely on recycling. Only by tackling the full life cycle, as well as using circular approaches, can we ensure that plastic pollution stays out of our oceans, our soils, and our bodies.”
This means rethinking the entire plastic economy from the design and packaging of products to their consumption and reuse. It means shifting incentives for manufacturers. It means public pressure on policymakers. It means that every individual action, every reusable bottle, every refused plastic straw, every community cleanup matters.
A Fork in the Road
World Environment Day 2025 leaves the world with a simple but sobering question: Do we beat plastic pollution, or does it beat us?
The evidence is overwhelming. The momentum is building. The solutions are at hand. But without political urgency, public pressure, and global coordination, the crisis will continue to deepen.
Jeju has shown us what’s possible. Now the world must follow.
#BeatPlasticPollution or be buried beneath it.
Written by Olivier Noudjalbaye Dedingar, USA/UN Correspondent.
