LONDON-Big brands – from Coke to Kellogg – pledged today to cut all plastic waste from their operations in what the United Nations called the most ambitious effort yet to fight plastic pollution.

The initiative comes as public pressure mounts on manufacturers and retailers to pare back the deluge of plastic packaging that is clogging landfills and choking the seas.

“We know that cleaning up plastics from our beaches and oceans is vital, but this does not stop the tide of plastic entering the oceans each year. We need to move upstream to the source of the flow,” said Ellen MacArthur, the record-breaking British sailor who is behind the plastic initiative.

The pledge by 250 organisations included many of the world’s biggest packaging producers, leading consumer brands, retailers and recyclers, as well as governments and NGOs. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation launched its New Plastics Economy Global Commitment in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).(Thomson Reuters Foundation)…[+]