The urgency of positive actions to deal with plastic menace

An exhausted delegate reacts to the outcome of the UN negotiation as developing a landmark treaty to end plastic pollution has once again failed in Geneva last week — IISD/ENB Photo

On March 2, 2022 in Nairobi, representatives of 175 countries pledged to create a legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution. The agreement urged addressing the full lifecycle of plastic and proposed alternatives including reusability. An Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) that could conceive the agreement by the end of the year 2024 was also created. The agreement expected to facilitate the transition to a circular economy, which would reduce GHG emissions by 25 per cent. Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP called the decision "a triumph by planet earth over single-use plastics".

On August 5, 2025 the world's nations met again at a UN conference in Geneva to finally agree on how to curb the plastic excesses. Nearly 100 countries, called for an "ambitious" treaty which would include a commitment to limit production levels. But there has been strong opposition from a group of oil-producing nations. Nevertheless, following 10 days of negotiations, Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) talks to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, adjourned early on 15 August without consensus on a text of the instrument. The Committee agreed to resume negotiations at a future date to be announced. It means, the sixth round of United Nations negotiations on ending plastic pollution broke up in Switzerland early Friday without a deal after disagreements with oil-producing nations pushing for recycling solutions over reducing plastic use.

We need to understand that plastics are a "grave, growing and under-recognised danger" for human health, according to a new expert report. The Lancet Countdown has estimated that health-related disease and death from the "plastic crisis" is responsible for at least US Dollar 1.5 trillion a year in health-related damages. These impacts can range from air pollution from the production of plastic to elevated risk of cancer, respiratory illnesses and miscarriages from plastic contamination in our bodies. Plastics contain more than 16,000 chemicals such as dyes and flame retardants, some of which are toxic and cancer-causing. Despite the growing body of evidence of the hazards of plastic, just a quarter of plastic chemicals have data on their impact. Of those tested, 75 per cent were found to be "highly hazardous". Single-use plastic is the biggest contributor to plastic waste in the environment, and most of our daily consumption of this comes from food packaging.

In 2019, 368 million tonnes of plastic was produced each year; 51 per cent in Asia, where China is the world's largest producer. From the 1950s up to 2018, an estimated 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic was produced worldwide, of which an estimated 9 per cent was recycled and another 12 per cent was incinerated. This large amount of plastic waste entered the environment and caused problems throughout the ecosystem. Studies have revealed that tests carried out at that time indicated that the bodies of 90 per cent of seabirds contained plastic debris.

However, at that time, there were significant efforts in some areas to reduce the prominence of free-range plastic pollution, through reducing plastic consumption, litter cleanup, and promoting plastic recycling.

Nevertheless, environmentalists have pointed out that as of 2020, the global mass of produced plastic exceeded the biomass of all land and marine animals combined.

A May-2019 amendment to the Basel Convention regulated the exportation/importation of plastic waste, largely intended to prevent the shipping of plastic waste from developed countries to developing countries. Nearly all countries joined this agreement. However, things have not evolved as desired.

The United States is the world leader in generating plastic waste, producing an annual 42 million metric tons of plastic waste. Per capita generation of plastic waste in the United States is higher than in any other country. In the beginning of 2024, 12 States and at least 500 municipalities had some kind of plastic bag ban. Three state bans and two cities ban alone reduced the number of plastic bags used in one year approximately by 6 billion. In 2009, Washington University in St. Louis became the first university in the United States to ban the sale of plastic, single-use water bottles. In 2009, the District of Columbia required all businesses that sell food or alcohol to charge an additional 5 cents for each carryout plastic or paper bag. In 2011 and 2013, Hawaii prohibited non-biodegradable plastic bags at checkout as well as paper bags containing less than 40 per cent recycled material. In 2015, Honolulu was the last major county approving the ban. In 2015, California prohibited large stores from providing plastic bags. In 2016, Illinois adopted the legislation and established "Recycle Thin Film Friday" in an effort to reclaim used thin-film plastic bags and encourage reusable bags. In 2019, the New York State banned single use plastic bags and introduced a 5-cent fee for using single use paper bags. The ban entered into force in 2020. This will not only reduce plastic bag usage in New York State (23 billion every year until now), but also eliminate 12 million barrels of oil used to make plastic bags used for this purpose.

In 2015 the European Union adopted a directive requiring a reduction in the consumption of single use plastic bags per person to 90 by 2019 and to 40 by 2025. In April 2019, the EU adopted a further directive banning almost all types of single use plastic, except bottles, from the beginning of the year 2021. On July 3, 2021, the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive (SUPD, EU 2019/904) went into effect within EU Member States. The directive aims to reduce plastic pollution from single-use disposable plastics. It focuses on the 10 most commonly found disposable plastics at beaches, which make up 43 per cent of marine litter (fishing gear another 27 per cent). According to the directive, there is a ban on plastic and balloon sticks, plastic plates, cutlery, stirrers and straws. In December 2022 the EU took the first steps for banning the export of plastic waste to other countries. Agreement between the European Parliament and the European Council went for a revision to the Waste Shipment Regulation. This was reached on November 17, 2023.

The government of India decided to ban single use plastics and take a number of measures to recycle and reuse plastic from October 2, 2019. In the year 2022 India began to implement a country-wide ban on different sorts of plastic. New Zealand has announced a ban on many types of hard-to-recycle single use plastic by 2025.

In January 2019, the Iceland Supermarket chain, which specialises in frozen foods, pledged to "eliminate or drastically reduce all plastic packaging for its store-brand products. By 2024, substantial advance has been made in this regard.

McDonald's pledged to be plastic-free from 2021 and are now using a paper wrap for its meals. From October 2023 many types of single use plastic have been banned in England including cutlery and plates. Scotland and Wales have already implemented such bans.

Other high-income countries, such as those of the EU-28 (annual per capita generation 58.56 kg), also have a high per capita plastic waste generation rate. Some high-income countries, such as Japan (annual per capital generation 38.44 kg), produce far less plastic waste per capita.

Microplastics alter soil biophysical properties which affect the quality of the soil. This affects soil biological activity, biodiversity and plant health. It decreases seedling germination, affects the number of leaves, stem diameter and chlorophyll content in these plants. Microplastics in the soil are a risk not only to soil biodiversity but also food safety and human health. Soil biodiversity is important for plant growth in agricultural industries.

Some academics and NGOs believe that a legally binding international treaty to deal with plastic pollution is necessary. They think this because plastic pollution is an international problem, moving between maritime borders, and also because they believe there needs to be a cap on plastic production.

We must understand that a global pact can help us to stop the threat that is evolving throughout the world. No one can contest the fact that plastic and microplastics have been found in Arctic sea ice, the bellies of whales, Earth's atmosphere and oceans, as well as human blood vessels and digestive systems. That is why governments have been under increasing pressure to unite in action against this global threat but to no avail.

One can only hope that the increasingly fractured international world order will face up to their deep divisions and try to mediate the health and ecological hazards that result from plastic use and disposal worldwide. Such a positive move needs to be given priority despite the diverging interests of nations, industries, and those trying to protect the environment and human health.

This article is also published on the Financial Express. illuminem Voices is a democratic space presenting the thoughts and opinions of leading Sustainability & Energy writers, their opinions do not necessarily represent those of illuminem.

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