• A dog looks out onto a garbage-filled creek in Manila. About eight million tonnes of plastic waste are dumped into the world's oceans every year - the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic being tipped into the sea every minute of every day. Over half comes from five Asian countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a 2015 study in Science journal. Noel Celis / AFP
    A dog looks out onto a garbage-filled creek in Manila. About eight million tonnes of plastic waste are dumped into the world's oceans every year - the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic being tipped into the sea every minute of every day. Over half comes from five Asian countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a 2015 study in Science journal. Noel Celis / AFP
  • People scavenging at the Wadajir municipal dumping site in Mogadishu, Somalia. The United Nations celebrate on June 5 the World Environmental Day dedicated this year to the theme "Beat Plastic Pollution". Mohamed Abdiwahab / AFP
    People scavenging at the Wadajir municipal dumping site in Mogadishu, Somalia. The United Nations celebrate on June 5 the World Environmental Day dedicated this year to the theme "Beat Plastic Pollution". Mohamed Abdiwahab / AFP
  • A man sorting out plastic PET bottles at the Kibarani dump site in Mombasa, Kenya. Andrew Kasuku / AFP
    A man sorting out plastic PET bottles at the Kibarani dump site in Mombasa, Kenya. Andrew Kasuku / AFP
  • A woman carries stuffed toys through a dump site on the outskirts of Mumbai, India. Francis Mascarenhas / Reuters
    A woman carries stuffed toys through a dump site on the outskirts of Mumbai, India. Francis Mascarenhas / Reuters
  • Fishing boats are seen on a beach covered with plastic waste in Thanh Hoa province, Vietnam on June 4, 2018. Nguyen Huy Kham / Reuters
    Fishing boats are seen on a beach covered with plastic waste in Thanh Hoa province, Vietnam on June 4, 2018. Nguyen Huy Kham / Reuters
  • Children walking along a garbage-filled bay in Manila. Noel CELIS / AFP
    Children walking along a garbage-filled bay in Manila. Noel CELIS / AFP
  • A man sorting through used plastic bottles at a junkyard in Hanoi. Nhac Nguyen / AFP
    A man sorting through used plastic bottles at a junkyard in Hanoi. Nhac Nguyen / AFP
  • Smoke rises from a burning field near the industrial area in the Indian city of Kanpur. The city of three million people has been smarting since a World Health Organisation (WHO) report last month put Kanpur at the head of 14 Indian cities in the world's top 15 with the dirtiest air. Chandan Khanna / AFP
    Smoke rises from a burning field near the industrial area in the Indian city of Kanpur. The city of three million people has been smarting since a World Health Organisation (WHO) report last month put Kanpur at the head of 14 Indian cities in the world's top 15 with the dirtiest air. Chandan Khanna / AFP

World

UN World Environment Day - in pictures

The day was this year dedicated to the theme Beat Plastic Pollution

The National

June 05, 2018

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The UN says government bans on plastic can be effective in cutting back on waste but poor planning and follow-through have left many such bans ineffective.

The report, released Tuesday on UN World Environment Day, notes that rules limiting the use of plastic bags had decreased their use in places like Morocco, Rwanda and parts of China, sometimes significantly. But elsewhere things haven't gone so well.

A ban on disposable plastics in New Delhi, for instance, has had only limited impact. The city has tried repeatedly over the past decade to ban the use of thin plastic bags, but they remain ubiquitous. Elsewhere in India, including the states of Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh, there have been better results.

* reporting by The Associated Press

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