“We need to raise our level of ambition and match it with bold and urgent action.”
- Dame Ellen MacArthur

In July 2020, The Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ

“We need to raise our level of ambition and match it with bold and urgent action.”
- Dame Ellen MacArthur

In July 2020, The Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ released Breaking the Plastic Wave: A Comprehensive Assessment of Pathways Towards Stopping Ocean Plastic Pollution, one of the most analytically robust studies ever produced on ocean plastics. Thought partners were the University of Oxford, University of Leeds, Common Seas, and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Breaking the Plastic Wave shows that by 2040, if we fail to act, the volume of plastic on the market will double, the annual volume of plastic entering the ocean will almost triple, and ocean plastic stocks will quadruple. This is in line with The Ellen MacArthur Foundation's 2016 analysis, which revealed that in 2050 there could be more plastic than fish in the ocean.

The study also confirms that a circular economy for plastic is the only way to address plastic waste and pollution at the source. This is a vision that already unites 850+ organisations through the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment and the Plastics Pact network.

Find out more here. 

Sustainability: Newscaster Jon Snow talks to Dame Ellen MacArthur about the circular economy and rethinking the future, in a short film looking back on the first year of the Ellen MacArthur

Sustainability: Newscaster Jon Snow talks to Dame Ellen MacArthur about the circular economy and rethinking the future, in a short film looking back on the first year of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Challenging Ellen on the fundamental principles of the Foundation’s mission – to inspire a generation to re-think and re-design for a positive future – Jon investigates the circular economy as a framework for change and questions the actual implementation and impact of such a model on business.

With over 5 years of research and a full year of the Foundation under her belt, Dame Ellen is well placed to handle these testing questions and to make a strong case for the circular economy framework.

The circular economy is a different business model. It’s a different way of looking at the system as a whole. We know our future doesn’t work long term, but within a circular economy it does.

World record-breaking sailor Dame Ellen MacArthur has spent a lot of time on the high seas, she reveals how these experiences sparked a revelation about how to manage finite resources on our

World record-breaking sailor Dame Ellen MacArthur has spent a lot of time on the high seas, she reveals how these experiences sparked a revelation about how to manage finite resources on our planet. Hear why she’s optimistic about transitioning to a circular economy, a system where we dramatically reduce waste and pollution