Talks to reach an agreement on how to tackle the epidemic of plastic waste have collapsed.
Countries spent the past week trying to create the first ever legally binding treaty on plastics pollution. But they could not agree on whether the treaty should reduce the total plastic on Earth and put global, legally binding limits on toxic chemicals used to make plastics.
Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet and The Plastic Health Council, blamed the plastics and fossil fuel industries for the failure, saying they “threw everything possible at these negotiations…hundreds of lobbyists; expensive ad campaigns; buckets of misinformation, extraordinary delaying tactics. When you have limitless funding from fossil fuels, derailing the negotiations is small change.”
The negotiations, in Busan, South Korea, were supposed to be the fifth and final round to produce the first ever Global Plastics Treaty. Negotiators have agreed to resume the talks next year though no date has been set.
Why is a plastics treaty so vital?
Global plastic production has increased over 200-fold to almost 460 million tonnes annually since 1950, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Plastic production could climb about 70 per cent by 2040 without policy changes.
In March 2022, 175 nations agreed to make the first legally binding treaty on plastics pollution, including in the oceans, by the end of 2024. The resolution states that nations will develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution based on a comprehensive approach that addresses the full life cycle of plastic.
Stewart Harris, a spokesperson for the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA), said it was an incredibly ambitious timeline. He said the ICCA is hopeful governments can reach an agreement with just a little more time.
Speaking after the failure of the talks, Sian Sutherland of A Plastic Planet said, “We should be outraged that this one opportunity for a legally binding treaty that protects us has failed.
“Plastic…has immeasurable impact on the biodiversity crisis and is the enabler of over-consumption – fast fashion is built on polyester plastic.”
She went on to explain the widespread and irreversible impacts of plastic,“It is a human health issue. Plastic and its 16,000 chemicals are toxic for humans, especially children.
“Already found in placenta, blood, breast milk, testicles and brains, the irrefutable impact on human health from endocrine disrupting chemicals can already be seen with the sharp decline in fertility, increases in cancer in the young, Alzheimer’s, autism and heart disease.
More than 100 countries want the treaty to limit production as well as tackle cleanup and recycling, and many have said that is essential to address chemicals of concern. But for some plastic-producing and oil and gas countries, that crosses a red line.
Why did the Global Plastics Treaty talks fail?
For any proposal to make it into the treaty, every nation must agree to it. Some countries sought to change the process so decisions could be made with a vote if consensus couldn’t be reached – India, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait and others opposed changing it, arguing consensus is vital to an inclusive, effective treaty.
On Sunday, the last scheduled day of talks, the treaty draft still had multiple options for several key sections. Some delegates and environmental organisations said it had become too watered down, including negotiators from Africa who said they would rather leave Busan without a treaty than with a weak one.
In Ghana, communities, bodies of water, drains and farmlands are choked with plastics, and dumping sites full of plastics are always on fire, said Sam Adu-Kumi, the country’s lead negotiator.
“We want a treaty that will be able to solve it,” he said in an interview. “Otherwise we will go without it and come and fight another time.”
