UN delegates battle to make life a little less plastic

Delegates from 184 countries are meeting in Geneva to develop a landmark UN treaty to combat plastic pollution.

So what? There have already been five rounds of talks without an agreement. The current summit is supposed to be the final round of negotiations and has been billed as the “last chance” to stop the world from “drowning in plastic pollution”. But countries are still split on

• limits to cap the production of single-use plastics;
• bans on chemicals believed to harm human health; and
• how to finance the implementation of the treaty.

Holdouts. Opposition to a production cap is led by oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia, Russia, Malaysia and the US, which economically benefit from the $1.2 trillion plastics industry. They want to focus on downstream measures such as improved recycling.

Dilution. This would be a significant watering down of the resolution that kicked off the negotiation process. Adopted in Kenya in 2022, it committed countries to agreeing on a treaty that “addresses the full lifecycle of plastic”.

Semantics. Oil producers also oppose the inclusion of an article that “obliges” signatories to prevent health risks from plastic pollution, for example by only allowing chemicals known not to harm humans. Some want an agreement that only “encourages” this. Saudi Arabia wants this article removed altogether, arguing it distracts “from the core objective” of plastic pollution.

The problem. Plastics are widely used because they are cheap, strong, light and can be made in practically any shape or colour. They also take up to a thousand years to decompose and their complex chemical structures make them hard to recycle. Leftover food or flimsy plastic bags in recycling bins meant for rigid plastic can contaminate an entire batch, making it worthless.

Throw away. Only 9 per cent of plastic is recycled. Of the rest

• nearly half ends up in landfill;
• 17 per cent is incinerated, generating air pollution; and
• 22 per cent is mismanaged and becomes litter.

Seascapes. Much of this mismanaged material ends up in the ocean, where plastic accounts for 85 per cent of pollution. The amount of plastic in the world’s waters is projected to exceed that of fish, by weight, by 2050.

Hazardous. At least 1,396 plastic chemicals are present in an average human body. A lot ends up in the brain. The brains of sample cadavers have been found to contain enough nano plastics to make a plastic spoon. The health effects of these materials are mostly unknown, but tiny particles have been linked to strokes, infertility, respiratory disorders and bowel disease.

The footprint. Roughly 90 per cent of plastics are made from fossil fuels. As of 2019 their production and disposal accounted for 3.4 per cent of global emissions, more than aviation.

The flipside. It is easy to focus on the material when the images of strewn oceans and beaches are so compelling. But plastic packaging typically accounts for less than 10 per cent of the environmental footprint of the food product it contains.

To that end, other materials also have a bigger one-to-one carbon footprint, since they require more energy to produce and transport due to their weight. For example

• paper bags need three times more energy to produce than plastic ones and are six times heavier; while
• glass bottles emit two times more energy than plastic ones, largely because of their intensive production process and relative weight.

Outlaw. A cap on single-use plastics could then, in theory, result in more emissions. But it is hoped that it will instead spur the adoption of greener multiuse plastics. A cap may also encourage the development of improved bioplastics made from plants. Several already exist, but can only be broken down at high temperatures in specialised composting units.

Revolution. Another answer lies in improving recycling methods. A promising area of research focuses on chemical recycling, where plastics are broken down to their basic components, making it easier to turn them into something else.

Either way… With plastic production set to triple by 2060, the future of the world’s ecosystems, and possibly of human health, could rest on breaking the deadlock in Geneva.