Plastic crisis needs binding treaty, report says

By Roger Harrabin
The environment analyst of the British Broadcasting Corporation.

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A report states that pollution from plastic is a global emergency.

There is evidence of harm from plastic.

The plastic pollution threat is almost as bad as climate change.

There are plastic particles in the air, plastic in snow, plastic in soils and plastic in food.

Elephants in Thailand have died after eating plastic waste.

The authors want nations to agree on a UN treaty with binding targets for reducing plastic production and waste.

"There is a deadly clock that counts down quickly," said the EIA's Tom Gammage.

If this wave of pollution continues, the plastic in the seas could surpass the weight of all fish in the ocean by the year 2040.

Climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution have been identified by the United Nations as threats to the environment.

Despite their failure to halt CO2 emissions or protect the natural world, multilateral agreements have existed for nearly 30 years.

Some nations have opposed the idea of a plastics treaty.

The UK is said to be in favor of a treaty being proposed at the next UN Environment Assembly.

There's a disagreement as to whether the treaty should be legally binding or voluntary, but sources say the opposition is weakened.

US President Joe Biden has announced that the US supports a global agreement.

It's not clear if he can get approval from Congress, as most of the plastic used in the US is made from oil and gas.

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The ambition of the treaty is said to be being diminished by Japan. The Arab Gulf states and China have not spoken. The US and UK are said to be the biggest producers of waste per person.

The EIA report states that the visible nature of plastic pollution has generated a lot of public concern but the majority of plastic pollution impacts are invisible.

The damage done by rampant overproduction of virgin plastics and their lifecycle is irreversible, and this is a threat to human civilization and the planet's basic ability to maintain a habitable environment. It is almost as serious as the threat from climate change.

The full life-cycle analysis of plastics should be the focus of a UN treaty, according to Prof Richard Thompson.

The underlying cause of the problem is unsustainable levels of production and consumption.

Policies that only promote the use of plastic that is'recyclable' won't be effective unless there is a local infrastructure to collect, separate, and recycle those plastic.

Polices to promote the use of 'compostable' plastic will only be effective if there is appropriate local infrastructure to handle that waste stream.

A spokesman for the British Plastic Federation told the news organization that plastic is a lightweight, safe, and energy efficient material and that replacing it with alternatives can have negative environmental consequences.

The unfortunate scenes of plastic waste washing up in oceans around the world are a direct result of improperly managed plastic waste in many areas, and if we want to make a difference, this is where the focus should be.

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One of the authors said that recycling can be part of the solution.

Oil and gas firms are trying to focus attention on plastic waste rather than the production of plastic altogether, according to a researcher from New Zealand.

The question is what will that treaty look like? Will there be a weak form that focuses on waste management? Will there be a resolution that includes the full life cycle of plastics, from production to disposal?

She agreed that more research was needed to determine the toxicity of plastic, but argued that it was dangerous to wait.

Some of the science on the impacts of plastic pollution is complex.

There is more than enough evidence to know that we have to act quickly to prevent further damage from plastic pollution.

The professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology agreed that there are many unknowns, but he maintained that plastic pollution was already breaching what is known as a planetary boundary, which should not be crossed because of the risk to humankind.

He told the news organization that he and his colleagues have argued that plastic pollution is a planetary boundary threat because it is causing ecological harm and will increase with plastic emissions.

The rational response to the global threat posed by accumulating and poorly reversible plastic pollution is to rapidly reduce consumption of virgin plastic materials, along with internationally coordinated strategies for waste management.

Large firms are resisting global rules, but others are in support. Firms are invited to sign up to strict standards by plasticpollutiontreaty.org to ensure a level playing field for plastic business.