At its core, the Plastic Forecast is a tool to spark conversations and drive change.

It’s not a traditional broadcast campaign pushing down a message to audiences but rather an invitation to look at the global plastic pollution problem through a different lens, and a tangible way to measure how it affects everyone on a daily basis, everywhere on the planet.

But with little to no advertising budget and no awareness of the Minderoo Foundation in France, we had to explore creative PR tactics to hijack traditional weather reports and get French media to spread the message for us.

Plastic production is set to triple by 2060. More than 400 million tonnes of new plastic is produced each year, and this figure is rising. We recycle just 9% of it. The World Economic Forum estimates by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. Our planet is at plastic capacity.

We need to act now.

Why Paris? Global leaders were meeting in Paris, France for negotiations on a globally binding agreement to stem the flow of new plastic. Not being allowed in the room, we needed to generate enough noise and public pressure around the discussions to influence their outcome.

The Minderoo Foundation is a philanthropic organisation from Perth, Australia, whose mission is to take on tough, persistent issues with the potential to drive massive change, not just in Australia, but globally. Their 'Oceans Initiative' relates to returning the ocean to a healthy state, free from pollution and safeguarded for future generations.

With the possibility of the world's first plastic treaty on offer, the Minderoo Foundation tasked us with making accelerating plastic production and pollution impossible to ignore, and avoid.

With the possibility of the world's first Plastic Treaty on offer, Minderoo Foundation tasked us with making accelerating plastic production and pollution impossible to ignore.

We needed to ensure a strong outcome of INC-2 in Paris, and drown out the voices of big-spending plastic lobbyists who make change near impossible. To do that, we needed to spark public outrage, and visualise the problem in a way that made it impossible to ignore.

To ensure the strong outcome, we needed to infiltrate culture and spark a reaction from the general public, not just delegates, so we attached the devastating effects of plastic production to something the lobbyists at ‘big plastic’ couldn’t control. The weather.

We attached the devastating effects of plastic to something lobbyists at ‘big plastic’ couldn’t control. Weather.

The Plastic Forecast is the world's first plastic weather report.

The forecast measures the amount of plastic in daily rainfall, allowing anyone to see the weight of our plastic problem. It combines landmark data on atmospheric plastic research with real-time weather data to provide a daily estimate of ‘plastic rain’ in kilograms.

Scientists at the Minderoo Foundation were able to verify the data, applying it to the metropolitan area of France, allowing us to inject real-time weather data to create a live Plastic Forecast for Paris throughout the UN's negotiations.

It was launched on the eve of the talks, with French news networks including our Plastic Forecast in their daily weather reports for the entire week. A typically untouchable media channel.

The public was encouraged to check the forecast online, and help change it.

If successfully implemented, the Plastic treaty could be a major turning point in the battle against plastic production which is set to triple by 2060 if we don’t act now.

However, despite its crucial importance for the future of our planet, many people weren’t aware of the negotiations happening in Paris and what was at stake.

As UN delegates from over 170 countries were gathering in the French capital to discuss what could be the first legally binding agreement on plastic production, our objective was to spark outrage amongst eco-conscious Parisians, getting them to put pressure on decision-makers, by signing their name, and demanding they ‘change the forecast’.

But in order to do that, we first had to make the plastic problem simple, newsworthy and tangible, and that’s where the Plastic Forecast came in.

The next part was about finding ways to hijack traditional weather reports to spread the word.

Given the relatively low visibility of the Minderoo Foundation in France, it was imperative to enlist a credible spokesperson whom the French public would readily recognise from traditional weather reports and trust implicitly on matters of sustainable development.

We found the perfect ambassador in Chloé Nabédian, a famous TV weather presenter, and climate activist/journalist, who not only became the face of the initiative at several press and media events, but also leveraged her personal network to connect us with France's biggest news networks, who integrated our Plastic Forecast into their daily weather reports, making it impossible for the public to ignore the weight of the problem any longer.

We looked into ways to bring the Plastic Forecast to like-minded audiences, from launching it at the ChangeNow summit alongside the France Minister for Ecology, to presenting it in front of ecologically-minded young people at We Love Green Festival.

With more than 2350 media mentions, we reached more than 1.3 billion in less than two weeks. Global publications such as Huffpost labelled the campaign "a timely initiative", ScienceAlert described it as "pioneering work", and France's Minister for Ecology declared it a "major scientific advance" at the ChangeNow Climate Summit in Paris. On World Environment Day, the UN itself co-signed our initiative.

Then, despite the lobbyists, the world's first plastic treaty was drafted. 30 countries making a new commitment to reduce their production. A strong outcome.

Although launched in Paris, The Plastic Forecast is a globally scalable weapon that reminds world leaders of the daily weight of inaction, as the treaty takes shape through a phased approach. The same science can be applied to any city, so The Plastic Forecast may serve as a visceral reminder of our horrific plastic problem, and the motivation we need to change it.

Data played a huge role in the research, development, creative execution, and user experience of The Plastic Forecast.

Scientists at the Minderoo Foundation were able to verify groundbreaking scientific data which confirmed the presence of plastic in rain, applying it to the metropolitan area of France, meaning we could cross reference it with real time weather data to create: The Plastic Forecast.

Our web app pulled from Open-Meteo, an open-source weather API, for its real time weather data, allowing us to report a live Plastic Forecast to anyone who visited the site, as conditions changed.

On the ground, we targeted those in and around the negotiations in France, with daily weather report integration, weather-activated outdoor, data-driven targeting around UNESCO, and real-time, contextual digital on weather websites such as Meteo France, France's biggest weather source.