Curbing plastic pollution: why we need an ambitious new global treaty
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Another day, another environmental conference. The United Nations member states have assembled in Busan, the Republic of Korea, to finalize the Global Plastics Treaty that aims to regulate the whole life cycle of plastics and turn their production into a decline. Plastic pollution is a critical environmental problem affecting all parts of nature, also remarkably the ocean. An ambitious treaty that regards the whole life cycle of plastics is important for staying within the planetary boundaries.
How wonderful plastics are: slow to degrade, short of eternal. So, what’s the downside? Precisely the durability and leakage into the environment – how plastics impact nature for hundreds of years. Our wonderful plastics are harming ecosystems and human health.
Since the 1950s, around 10 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced. More than 80 percent of that has become waste, with 10 to 14 million tonnes ending up in the ocean each year.
Now, negotiators from around the world have come together in Busan, the Republic of Korea, aiming to finally create an international legally binding treaty on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. This is the fifth round of negotiations, lasting from 25 November to 1 December, that seeks to finalize the treaty by the end of 2024.
The conference focuses on the entire life cycle of plastics: from the raw material and production to the use and disposal. While recycling plastics and managing waste properly are important, reducing the production is crucial if we are to have any hope of managing the increase in plastic waste.
The underwater dangers of plastic
Plastics, varying in size, affect marine nature in multiple ways. Thousands of chemicals in plastic pose toxicity, food chains are disrupted by the vicious microplastics, and species suffer.
“From toxic chemicals to suffocating entanglements and deadly ingestion, plastic waste disrupts marine ecosystems through many pathways, threatening the balance of ocean life. Plastic pollution also harms people and the economy: microplastics and chemicals are found in seafood, while the economic impacts include damage to fisheries and aquaculture, cleanup costs, and losses in tourism”, explains Juulia Suikula, project manager at John Nurminen Foundation.
Plastic enters the Baltic Sea, for instance, primarily from land-based sources such as industrial processes and everyday human activities. Plastics make their way to the sea through stormwater systems and rivers, often traveling long distances. Sea-based sources of pollution include littered beaches, ports, and maritime activities, such as abandoned fishing gear and plastic pellets from shipping.
Plastic pollution threatens planetary boundaries
A recent research article demonstrates a close connection between plastic pollution and other global environmental challenges. The article examines plastic pollution through the lens of planetary boundaries – a framework of nine critical processes that define the safe limits for human impact on Earth. The researchers give a clear signal: plastic pollution has major effects on the entire Earth system. The pollution is linked to, e.g., climate change, biodiversity loss, and ocean acidification.
Plastic pollution’s climate effects, for example, are manyfold. Almost all (99%) plastics are derived from fossil fuels that have detrimental effects on climate. Plastic alters carbon sinks both above and below water. On top of these, microplastics cause changes in albedo of snow and ice.
Thus, plastic pollution is not only a matter of waste management and should not be treated as such. Published only days before the negotiations in Busan, the article argues that in order to reduce the pressure on planetary boundaries, plastic production has to be sufficiently reduced. While recycling plastics is important, it alone is not enough to relieve the pressure of plastic pollution.
Reaching agreement is crucial but challenging
The ambitious goal of the new treaty is to cut down the plastic production that is currently widely unregulated.
“While education can help change consumer habits, the responsibility for plastic pollution should not fall on individuals alone. To effectively address the issue, we need less plastic globally, with stricter regulations, better waste management, and sustainable alternatives”, Suikula says.
However, there has been disagreement on how to include the question of production into the agreement. Finding common ground on the matter has been difficult due to the contradicting, mostly economic interests of the negotiating countries – all the while the production of plastics is projected to double by 2050. Many major oil and plastic-producing countries have been reluctant to reduce the production to sustainable levels.
Solving the problem of plastic pollution also requires support for countries with capacity restraints, who often bear the brunt of the pollution burden. The pollution is a question of environmental justice as it disproportionately harms communities that are already in vulnerable situations.
Towards less plastic
While replacing plastic in all its many usages poses some challenges, many fossil-based plastics can be replaced with new materials and different bio-based products.
“For example, the potential uses of reed, such as in various composite materials, are being explored. Reed can also be used in gardening and agriculture, offering a way to replace plastic. While reed may offer some solutions, a broad array of other approaches using various biomaterials is needed on a larger scale. In addition, materials substituting plastics typically, but not necessarily, come with a higher price and may require some alterations conventional practices”, explains Maija Salmiovirta, project manager at John Nurminen Foundation.
All in all, what is now needed is ambitious international regulation that cuts down plastic production. At the same time, new solutions and financing are needed on a broad front to boost recycling and waste management as well as developing alternative materials.
Our blue planet can no longer carry the amount of plastic we are producing.
Sources:
IISD Earth Negotiations Bulletin
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
