FOR more than two years, the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution, or INC, had been struggling to forge a global treaty to end the plastic menace.
The committee was created in March 2022 through a United Nations Environment Assembly resolution, with the sole purpose of developing an international, legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, addressing its full life cycle from production to disposal.
The 120 countries represented in the INC went through five rounds of negotiations, but still failed to agree on a deal. The talks were deadlocked over whether the treaty should include binding limits on plastic production or focus more narrowly on waste management and recycling.
Accusations were raised that a clique of oil-producing countries were “sabotaging” measures to slash plastic production, phase out toxic chemicals and set up a dedicated fund to see the treaty through.
“No treaty is better than a bad treaty,” noted Ana Rocha, global plastics policy director at the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives. “We stand with the ambitious majority who refused to back down and accept a treaty that disrespects the countries that are truly committed to this process and betrays our communities and our planet.”
Eskedar Awgichew Ergete of Eco-Justice Ethiopia says the rift between the haves and have-nots is thwarting efforts for unified action to end plastic pollution.
“For years, the Global South has been the driving force behind the most ambitious proposals, but the consensus paralysis has prevented us from delivering the treaty the world urgently needs,” Ergete said.
Zaynab Sadan, who heads the World Wildlife Fund’s delegation to the INC, said “consensus decision-making has outplayed its role in international environmental negotiations.”
Frustrated with the glacial pace of negotiations, the INC member-states booted out its chairman, Ecuadoran Ambassador Luis Vayas Valdivieso, and replaced him with Julio Cordano, the director of environment, climate change and oceans at Chile’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Cordano acknowledged the scale and urgency of the challenge he now faces.
“Plastic pollution is a planetary problem that affects every country, community and individual. Therefore, a treaty is urgently needed to support concerted action and bring us together to address this shared responsibility,” he said.
The challenge is daunting, to say the least. The UN Environment Program has said the alarming rise in plastic pollution represents “a serious global environmental issue that negatively impacts the environmental, social, economic and health dimensions of sustainable development.”
If no urgent action and necessary interventions are taken, global plastic waste could almost triple, reaching around 1.2 billion tons by 2060.
It was just decades ago when plastic was hailed as the “wonder stuff” because it can be molded or pressed into almost any shape or form. It is also strong, transparent and cheap to produce.
Plastic products surround us, from water bottles, cell phones and toys, to combs, computer components and car parts. The list is endless.
Plastics spawned the “throwaway” culture — excessive consumption and disposal of goods. Anything that has outlived its usefulness is simply discarded and replaced.
Today, the wonder stuff has become an environmental nightmare. The planet is awash in plastic trash.
While the campaign to recycle plastic waste has been gaining traction, it is still too limited in scope to make a difference.
Plastic waste has emerged as a health concern as well. Microplastics — minute bits of plastic debris that result from the disposal and breakdown of consumer products and industrial waste — can find their way into the human body and act as magnets that attract toxic microorganisms.
The existence of what has been described as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch best illustrates the extent of the plastic menace.
Drifting about in the middle of the Pacific Ocean is a debris field of discarded fishing gear, plastic bottles, bags and microplastics. It has a surface area of 1.6 million square kilometers (sq km), according to some estimates. (By comparison, Luzon, the world’s fifth-largest island, is 104,688 sq km).
The Garbage Patch is still growing, as ocean currents continue to add more plastic waste from the countries ringing the Pacific.
It is a powerful warning of things to come if the plastic menace is not tamed.
