Plastic Overshoot Day

Client: EA Earth Action

Plastic is everywhere, with scientists predicting plastic pollution is expected to triple by 2024. With such a crowded media landscape, Higginson Strategy knew that getting media coverage for a plastic pollution story would be a challenge.

You may have heard of Earth Overshoot Day, a climate change calendar highlight which details the date where humanity exhausts nature’s budget for the year. Well, plastic pollution IS a fossil fuel. It’s the oil industry’s dirty little secret. Earth Overshoot Day works on this conceit, as it brings climate change into the hometown of each person around the globe.

Combining this idea for plastic pollution, Higginson Strategy launched EA Earth Action’s Plastic Overshoot Day Report. We used the international NGO’s to amplify the very simple idea that there is a point in the year when we stop being able to deal with the plastic we produce.

Simple ideas are the best and Higginson Strategy helped amplify the report from yet another plastic research story into a global awareness day, where coverage is now self-generating.

With more than 400 pieces of coverage and a strong social media following, we have taken research and turned it into the basis for a globally recognised Plastic Overshoot Day.