Update on the EASAC Plastics Report: Towards a Plastics Treaty

We discuss the case for a plastics tax to compensate for the exclusion of external costs to society and the environment in the market price of plastic, and include estimates of their scale. [...] Thus the Treaty should commit to the principles of design to increase the safety, durability, and reusability of plastic products, and that they should be recycled and disposed of in a safe and environmentally sound manner. [...] Plastic waste would almost triple while disposal would continue to rely on landfill (50%) and Box 13 of our 2020 report referred to the case for a incineration (18%), and mismanagement of waste plastics tax to compensate for the exclusion of these would lead to a doubling in leakage to the environment external costs to society and the environment in the (44 million tonnes (Mt) a year), so that acc. [...] and the role and responsibility of consumers in plastic To achieve such benefits, substantial shifts are required pollution, and ensuring that the sustainable alternatives in infrastructure, business models, and consumer are easy to use and deliver in terms of functional value behaviour, where the experience of the German DRS (quality and price). [...] As a principle, the biodegradability could be included in the Treaty, guidance in the Plastics Treaty should aim towards and at the current state of technology it would be EPR systems that lead to true costs of fossil-fuel-based inappropriate to exclude such plastics from the main plastics (full costs of plastics production, use, and obligations in the Treaty.