A report from the World Bank shows New Zealanders generate almost two kilograms of rubbish per person, per day - more than twice the global average.
Liam Prince from advocacy group The Rubbish Trip said New Zealand had only made small changes to improve the problem, getting the country nowhere.
"We need to be a lot more ambitious," he told Morning Report.
The report said on a per country basis, the largest quantities of single-use plastics are high-income countries such as New Zealand, Canada and the United States.
Prince said while food waste was also a major problem globally, New Zealand was one of the worst places for it.
He believed a international treaty to end plastic pollution was needed, something the UN had been in discussions about for years.
Prince said pollution "doesn't respect national boundaries", and waste reduction should be a team effort globally.
