Inelastic on Plastics

By Anil Madan

Back in 2022, the OECD, comprising 38 member countries, issued a report estimating that the amount of plastic waste produced globally is on track to almost triple by 2060, with around half ending up in landfill and less than a fifth recycled.

The world consumes somewhere between 450-500 million metric tonnes (500-550 million US tons) of plastics per year. Estimates vary, but roughly less than 10% of plastics are recycled. Over 20 million metric tonnes of plastic waste end up in the environment every year.

Plastic consumption is expected to reach somewhere between 1,200 to 1,300 metric tonnes by 2060. Not surprisingly, growth is expected to be fastest in developing and emerging countries in Africa and Asia, although OECD countries are expected to produce more plastic waste per capita than their non-OECD counterparts.

Based on a 2022 resolution: “End plastic pollution: towards an international legally binding instrument”, the United Nations Environment Assembly convened an intergovernmental negotiating committee in Busan, Republic of Korea, to begin work on a draft treaty to be completed by the end of 2024. The idea was to develop an international legally binding agreement on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. The document could also include voluntary approaches to address the full life cycle of plastics. Since then, sessions have been held in Uruguay, France, Kenya, Canada, and most recently in South Korea.

Global crisis

Not surprisingly, negotiators in Busan did not reach agreement on a treaty to address the global crisis of plastic pollution. Talks will resume next year. At the most recent meeting, negotiators were at an impasse over whether the treaty should aim to reduce the total amount of plastic production, or control the toxic chemicals used in plastics manufacture, or whether the best approach was to address the problem through waste management.

In his opening remarks, Luis Vayas Valdivieso (Ecuador), Chair of the intergovernmental negotiating committee, said that plastic pollution constituted an urgent and insidious threat to ecosystems, economies and human health. The magnitude of the crisis was evident; without significant intervention, the amount of plastic entering the environment annually by 2040 was expected to nearly double compared to 2022.

Urgent and insidious threats on a grand scale often yield to more parochial interests. So, it was in Busan. Countries and business constituencies championed their perceived interests, here resisting curbs on plastic production, there resisting changes to the chemistry of plastics, and elsewhere promoting the role of waste management. As a result, the delegates ended up with only a very rough draft of a potentially agreeable document. Quite frankly, the document reads like a not particularly well-crafted word salad of conflicting thoughts and is unlikely to produce anything worthwhile in a long time.

Maria Ivanova directs the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University and has been a delegate or observer at the treaty negotiations since they began. Appearing on the NPR program Living on Earth, she explained that although “everyone agrees that we do have a problem, the sticking point is: where do we start? Do we begin with the extraction of fossil fuels from the ground, which can turn into plastics? Do we start at the design stage, or do we focus on the point at which these products are discarded and improve our waste management systems? This is the key point of contention: Where does the life cycle begin? For the high-ambition coalition, they argue that the life cycle starts with the extraction of these fuels from the ground — at the very beginning of obtaining these resources. While for those countries that said we need a better waste management system, for them, the life cycle starts a bit later.”

Prompted by the host’s questioning, she agreed that many of the countries that produce fossil fuels, the feed stock for plastic, are pushing for a better waste management system to address plastic pollution.

Fossil fuel lobbyists

The result of the lobbying is that there is a group that seeks an agreement that does not limit production of plastics. They are supported by the fossil fuel lobbyists. The companies that sell branded goods, such as Coca-Cola and Unilever favoured a strong, ambitious treaty, but one wonders if this was merely a subterfuge, that of taking a seeming pro-consumer position without any risk since a treaty was unlikely in any event.

Ivanova summarized her take on the negotiations. First, there was what she called “a no agreement option.” Given that the differences among the parties were too great to bridge, the conference would end with no agreement. The second was what she called “an agreement of the willing,” some 100 countries seeking a global treaty that regulates the entire life cycle of plastics. Of course, such an agreement would not be universal, so not really a ratifiable treaty. The third option was to find a consensus with the oil producing countries that did not want to start at the beginning of extraction life cycle, but to focus on waste.

The third option could not succeed without the countries that wanted to start with curbing production to agree that production would be out of the agreement and start at the design stage. The rest of the countries then would have to agree to have chemicals regulated or controlled in the design stage. Ultimately, there was no agreement.

Curbing pollution from plastics is indeed an urgent and pressing problem. Whether plastics pollution can be brought under control at all without limiting severely the use of plastics altogether is not clear. And cutting plastics use seems to have little chance of success. The enormous profits that plastics generate, and the intricate way in which plastics have become a part of the daily lives of humans around the world, suggest that the economic and social forces needed to break the cycle simply will not engender much support.Read More… Become a Subscriber

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 13 December 2024