No time to waste in cutting plastic pollution, UN warns ahead of treaty talks

A roadmap for slashing the plastic pollution ravaging the world’s oceans and ecosystems was on Tuesday put forward by UN experts – who say the coming years will be instrumental in curbing millions of metric tonnes of waste and creating a circular economy.

A plastic bag drifts in the Baltic Sea on May 3, 2023 during the late spring as the sea ice slowly melts. AFP - OLIVIER MORIN

“Reuse, recycle and replace” is the key message of a UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report that says single-use plastic could be halved and plastic waste reduced by 80 percent by 2040 if governments make the necessary policy changes and market shifts.

Failure to act on plastic meanwhile could cause the world to overshoot the Paris Agreement target of limiting carbon emissions to 1.5C given that plastic accounts for considerable emissions.

The report’s publication comes two weeks before representatives from 200 countries convene in Paris for a second round of talks aimed at reaching a legally binding global treaty on plastic pollution.

"We are calling for a transition from a model based on disposable products to a circular economy,” the report’s main author, Llorenç Milà i Canals, told RFI – adding that products that were once commonly reused – such as bottles being returned to shops – were now used just once.

“We need to return to this system that has been abandoned.”

Plastic drink bottles, in particular, are a major contributor to plastic pollution as are single-use nappies for babies, he said.

Plastic pollution could reduce by 80% by 2040 if governments and companies make policy and market shifts using existing technologies.

OUT NOW – UNEP’s new report provides a pathway for nations to #BeatPlasticPollution: https://t.co/dcfBkZaOfN pic.twitter.com/iSQ9QSpYC1

— UN Environment Programme (@UNEP) May 16, 2023

Three market shifts

Slashing plastic by 80 percent over the next 17 years means promoting reuse options, such as deposit-return and packaging-takeback schemes; making recycling more economic by limiting the number of polymers in a product so that it’s easier to recycle; and diversifying the materials used to make wrappers, sachets and takeaway containers.  

"We have to fight the idea that plastic is a cheap material … When plastic pollutes ecosystems it has a cost,” says Milà i Canals.

“In the ocean it reduces fishing resources and the value of tourist areas. Plastic also endangers the health of animals in agriculture and lowers productivity.”

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Some 238 million metric tonnes of waste from short-lived plastics was generated worldwide in 2020, with about half of that amount either dumped or burned.

The UNEP estimates that yearly waste will reach 408 million metric tonnes by 2040 if effective measures aren’t taken to stop the proliferation of plastic.

Systemic change to keep plastics out of ecosystems, however, could see that pollution figure cut to 41 million metric tonnes.

"The next three to five years present a critical window for action to set the world on the path towards implementing the systems change scenario by 2040," the report warned.