Monday 5 June 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of World Environment Day, since it was established in 1973. This year the priority is on solving the global environmental pollution caused by plastics and ensuring that urgent action is now agreed on by countries to solve this issue permanently.
Images of dead birds and animals stuffed full of plastics certainly have captured the public’s imagination, perhaps even more than the shocking fact that over 10 million tonnes of plastic enter the world’s oceans every year. It appears that no place on the planet is now left unpolluted. From the heights of Mount Everest to the depths of the Mariana Trench, even to the rainfall itself, the impact of plastics is ‘choking the planet’ and damaging ecosystems.
‘Once in a lifetime opportunity, once in a planet opportunity’
Inger Andersen, the executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), in a recent CNN interview, commented that, “We are literally drowning in plastic. A solution must be found”. Andersen highlighted the roadmap report published last month by UNEP, which offered solutions to reduce plastic waste by 80% by 2040.
“The report shows that only an integrated, systemic shift from a linear to a circular economy can keep plastics out of our ecosystems and bodies, and in the economy. The report lays out key elements of the required market transformation – rethinking and redesigning products; reusing, recycling, reorienting and diversifying markets; and addressing demand for durable plastics.”
She describes the current plastic negotiations which are due by 2024 as a “Once in a lifetime opportunity, once in a planet opportunity” to solve the pervasive and growing threat of plastics.
Recycling alone will not be enough to stem the tide of plastic pollution. Andersen urges that eliminating the unnecessary uses in the first place by creating a transformative shift away “from a linear to a circular economy that can keep plastics out of our ecosystems and bodies and in the economy”.
This is a point which was supported by António Guterres, the secretary general of the United Nations, when he commented on social media, “Recycling alone is not enough to #BeatPlasticPollution. Creating a circular economy for plastic is critical to tackling the climate crisis & improving lives for everyone, everywhere”.
The reliance on recycling as a solution can also reveal a hidden danger – that recycling itself could be releasing huge amounts of microplastics. A study published last month by the University of Strathclyde, concluded that “The current process of recycling is a potential source of plastic pollution to the environment that it is designed to help prevent”.
The Guardian quoted Erina Brown, the lead researcher of the study, as saying, “More than 90% of the particles we found were under 10 microns and 80% were under 5 microns”. Brown continued: “These are digestible by so many different organisms and found to be ingested by humans.”
Pathway to a plastic pollution free world
The G7 countries have already promised to end plastic pollution by 2040. After the G7 meeting in Japan in April this year, countries pledged their commitment to create a pollution-free planet. “We commit to working towards a pollution-free planet for the health and well-being of our people and the environment.”
In their joint statement, they promised that, “We are committed to end plastic pollution, with the ambition to reduce additional plastic pollution to zero by 2040”. The mechanism for achieving this is through the current round of intergovernmental negotiation in Paris.
Creating a global pledge on plastics
The second meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) concluded on 3 June in Paris, with the aim to create a global, legally binding plastics treaty. This is a carefully planned stepped approach with a draft of the agreement to be in place by the next session in Kenya in November. This will allow time for negotiations to be completed by the end of 2024 and therefore empower countries and governments to act.
Over 1,700 participants, from over 169 member states, as well as NGO observers, attended the session in Paris and fittingly the INC chair, Gustavo Adolfo Meza-Cuadra Velasquez, quoted Victor Hugo, when he commented, “It is sad to think that nature speaks, and human beings do not listen. When we listen to nature and we act, we can make progress”.
Solutions
The UNEP has produced a helpful and positive resource as a practical guide to beat plastic pollution. They acknowledge the impact of consumer pressure and group action, but stress that the heavy lifting needs to be done by bigger bodies. “Consumer pressure is key, but real action needs to come from companies, investors, lawmakers and governments”. The resource guide breaks down action points into opportunities for individuals, NGOs and other groups, governments and town and city authorities, as well as industry, to transform their behaviour.
Simply imagining a world without plastic isn’t enough. Plastics are a relative new invention in human history, gaining ground in the mid-20th century. Taking action to reduce our dependence on plastics and ensuring that the UK government doesn’t continue to simply ship the plastic waste, along with the environmental damage from the UK, to poorer countries is vital. As discovered in a study published in Science Advances, the UK is one of the biggest producers of plastic waste per capita in the world, second only to the US and we export approximately two-thirds of our plastic waste overseas. We are dumping this problem on countries not equipped to deal with it effectively, while at the same time feeling morally righteous. World Environment Day is a reminder that simply pushing a problem out of sight and abdicating responsibility, is not a solution.
