Ahead of the next round of plastics treaty talks in April, Greenpeace engaged in some Washington street theater March 28, putting up a 15-foot "monument" of plastic waste on the grounds of the Capitol and PN's Steve Toloken was there to check it out.
The monument, "Biden's Plastic Legacy," featured a statue of President Joe Biden in an "Atlas" pose from classical Roman sculpture, but in this case holding up an aluminum globe filled with plastic waste rather than the world.
A small group from Greenpeace and its allies gathered in front of the Capitol, where they said they had delivered a treaty petition with a few hundred thousand signatures to the White House the day before and met with administration officials.
"It feels like there's still a lot of tension and unresolved issues across the federal government [on the treaty]," said John Hocevar, Greenpeace USA oceans director. "I think we're a bit late in the process for there to be such big unanswered questions on where the U.S. is going. That's part of why we're here.
"We want the president to step in and show some leadership," he said. "We have not seen the United States shift yet as much as we need to, but they tell us they are hearing us."
Greenpeace is not alone in lobbying government officials ahead of the next round of talks, slated for April 23 in Canada. About 100 plastics executives had the global agreement as one of their talking points when they came to Washington for their annual D.C. fly-in.