The United Nations has approved the world’s first global plastic pollution treaty to drastically reduce the volume of plastic in our world. In what’s been described as the most significant environmental deal since the 2015 Paris climate agreement, it will create a legally binding set of protocols that puts restrictions on the oil and chemical companies that make it, and consumer goods giants that use single-use packaging. That’s likely to affect some nations’ economies more than others, with a special nod to the US, China, India, Saudi Arabia and Japan… Environmental groups say there’s an urgent need for the treaty because plastic puts marine species and ecosystems at risk. And check this out for a stat: approximately 7 billion of the estimated 9.2 billion tonnes of plastics produced between 1950-2017 is now waste. There’s some way to go before the agreement is put into action with the treaty due to be finalised by 2024.