Plastic producers stall progress on treaty to limit pollution

At UN-mandated discussions in South Korea, some nations are pushing instead for the focus to be on measures to deal with plastic waste

In 2020, 435 million tonnes of plastic were produced, and by 2040 the figure could reach more than 700 million tonnes without tougher restrictions. Getty Images

Campaigners and scientists say that a global plastics treaty being negotiated in South Korea must include production limits if it is to be effective.

The gathering in Busan represents the last scheduled round of UN-mandated negotiations before the planned finalisation of the treaty in 2025.

Representatives from more than 170 countries and 600 organisations are taking part in this fifth session of the UN Environment Programme's Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution. The talks began on Monday and finish on Sunday.

“Science is showing us what the problem is and what the path forward must be. The biggest and most important objective would be production reduction. There are countries that don’t want to touch that,” Prof Bethanie Almroth, co-coordinator of the Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty, told The National from Busan.

Tighter limits on the chemical make-up of plastics are required to ensure products are safe, according to Prof Almroth, who researches the environmental effects of plastic pollution at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. She said that of the approximately 16,000 chemicals used in plastic, 4,200 were known to be hazardous and there was a lack of data about a further 10,000.

The first four sessions of negotiations took place in Uruguay, France, Kenya and Canada between 2022 and 2024.

Speaking earlier this week, Inger Andersen, the United Nations Environment Programme executive director, said delegates had a “historic moment” to end the world’s “plastic pollution crisis”.

According to figures published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 435 million tonnes of plastic were produced in 2020, and by 2040 the figure could reach more than 700 million tonnes without tougher restrictions.

At the negotiations in Busan, about 60 to 70 countries, including Norway, Rwanda and Peru, form what has been termed the “high-ambition coalition”, pushing for a tougher treaty.

In the opposite direction, the “like-minded group” of nations are said by delegates to be keen to avoid production limits. Instead, they would like a treaty that regulates how plastic waste is dealt with.

According to figures published by the United Nations, 98 per cent of single-use plastics are made from petrochemicals, and until 2050 such petrochemicals are expected to account for half the growth in the demand for oil.

“We’re trying to ensure evidence-based decision-making, We’re seeing problems with misinformation and disinformation and conflict [of interest] and lobbying,” Prof Almroth added.

She said that a concern was that the voting mechanism meant that countries opposed to stricter measures in effect had a veto, although she added that whatever is agreed in South Korea is “just the first step”.

“I don’t think the treaty that comes out of this week will be the final version. There will be room for it to be expanded,” she said.

Farah Al Hattab, Greenpeace Middle East and North Africa’s lead plastics campaigner, said that, among other measures, the treaty should cap plastic production at 2019 levels and aim for a 75 per cent reduction in production by 2040. She called for “binding targets for reuse systems” and bans on non-essential single-use plastics.

“Some oil-producing countries in the Mena region are advocating for a treaty that focuses solely on managing plastic waste, falling far short of the comprehensive action the world urgently needs,” she said.

“While these countries acknowledge the devastating impact of plastic pollution on our planet, ecosystems, and health, they avoid tackling the root cause: reducing plastic production."

“Instead, they promote waste-management strategies and advanced recycling technologies, such as chemical recycling, as supposed solutions – despite their limited effectiveness in addressing the scale of the crisis.”

A key problem caused by plastic pollution is the production of tiny microplastics, formed from the breakdown of plastic waste, which pollute the environment and accumulate in human organs, with potential health effects.

Scientists have warned that large-scale climatic and biodiversity changes are happening because of plastics.

Discarded plastic poses a hazard to animals, including in the UAE, where camels have died because masses of plastic rope and other material mistaken for food have accumulated in their stomachs.

As much as 12.7 million tonnes of plastic ends up in the world’s oceans each year, where it can harm wildlife and enter the marine food chain.

Speaking from Busan, Dr Markus Eriksen, co-founder of the 5 Gyres Institute, a non-profit organisation that works to combat plastic pollution, told The National that he was concerned about efforts to “derail and delay the treaty”, such as by questioning the evidence that plastics harmed human health.

He called on countries pushing for a weaker treaty to “think beyond their national self-interest and think of the global interest”.

“There’s a disparity between what the majority want and what the most powerful countries want,” he said.

It was essential, he said, that the treaty agreed should be legally binding, include production caps, stop the trans-boundary trade in plastic waste and include measures on design standards, which largely relates to a clampdown on single-use plastics.

One reported concern of high-ambition nations is that if they force through a stricter deal without universal agreement, opposing countries may choose to not implement the treaty.

Prof Amit Goyal, who researches plastic recycling at the University at Buffalo, the state university of New York, said that it was important for countries to prohibit the use of single-use plastics "in applications where that use is not essential”, such as with plastic shopping bags.

"There needs to be more investment in research and development to create alternatives to the current use of single-use plastics with similar physical properties,” he said.

These would provide alternatives to single-use plastics in current "critical applications” such as in medicine or some food packaging.

He indicated that legislative change could prevent the use of plastics that people had viewed as essential, citing a ban on plastic bags in New York state.

"When that ban occurred, people addressed that gap by having cloth bags or plastic bags which they reused. After that initial inertia and hassle of it, everybody was quite happy using reusable bags,” he said.

The UAE too has in recent years tightened restrictions on the use of single-use plastic bags, with a countrywide ban having come into force at the beginning of the year.