Sarah J. Morath is a professor of law and associate dean for international programs at Wake Forest University – The Hill: “There is no shortage of news about plastic’s ubiquity or its harms. Microplastics are in clouds, drinking water, playgrounds and our blood. Marine mammals are entangled in and ingest plastic at alarming rates. Plastic exacerbates climate change and biodiversity loss, and high-income countries increasingly consume and export used plastic to lower-income countries for disposal. The amount of plastic entering the marine environment is on track to double by 2024, and solutions, like plastic recycling and voluntary reduction efforts by businesses, have fallen short. These realities necessitate coordinated global action.   Fortunately, historic efforts are underway as countries gathered last week to discuss the Zero Draft — the starting point for a binding global plastics treaty. This meeting, held in Nairobi, Kenya, was the third of five sessions led by The International Negotiating Committee (INC) on Plastic Pollution, a United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) committee established to develop a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution by 2025…”