This would be important in order to complete the drafting and agreement on treaty text including all the core obligations needed to end plastic pollution across the life cycle of plastics from extraction and production to the stage of legacy waste and pollution. [...] The INC-5 on plastic pollution could consider the following proposal for additional negotiating time both before and after the diplomatic conference: The guiding principle for the upcoming negotiations must be to deliver a treaty that is fit for the purpose to end plastic pollution in time for the diplomatic conference. [...] This chapter is a summary of a GAIA briefing drawing policy inferences from the LBNL study.24 The full life cycle of plastic starts with the extraction of fossil fuels, which provide both the feedstock and the energy source for plastic production 75% of greenhouse gas emissions from primary plastic production happen prior to polymerization, in the extraction and refining of fossil fuels, productio. [...] Protecting economies from the greater harm of plastic overproduction and pollution The transition to a plastic production cap and phasedown will have some costs, but these are dwarfed by the cost of plastic pollution and its effects on the environment and human health. [...] Given the numerous data gaps on costs from plastic pollution, including the costs for human health outside of Europe, the US and Canada, the costs of damage to terrestrial ecosystems across the world, the cost of micro and nano-plastic cleanup, as well as the 38 Quaker United Nations Office & Eunomia Consulting (2024).
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- 52
- Published in
- United States of America
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction The fateful choice facing the INC-5 4
- 2. Comments on the INC Chairs third non paper 6
- General considerations 6
- Avenues for strengthening 6
- 3. An updated negotiations timeline 13
- 4. Plastic production reduction the climate imperative 15
- The full life cycle of plastic starts with the extraction of fossil fuels which provide both 15
- Growth in plastic production alone will doom international climate goals 15
- Deep rapid cuts in plastic production are required by the Paris Agreement 16
- 5. Green jobs under an effective plastics treaty 17
- Primary production jobs are shrinking in an unstable market 17
- Reuse and repair will bring the most jobs 18
- Protecting economies from the greater harm of plastic overproduction and pollution 19
- 6. The plastics treaty and the Basel Convention 21
- A treaty focused on binding upstream measures to complement Basel gaps 21
- Treaty regulations on harmful polluting plastic waste management needed 21
- Treaty consideration of hazardous polymers and additives 22
- Basel must address gaps on the trade of plastic wastes in other waste streams 22
- Better enforcement needed 22
- 7. A just and effective financial mechanism 24
- 8. A global plastics fee 28
- What a Global Plastic Pollution Fee could achieve 28
- Points to consider 28
- 9. Extended Producer Responsibility 29
- What are EPR schemes 29
- What have they achieved 30
- Governance 30
- Waste prevention 31
- Inclusion of reuse and recycling players 31
- 10. Plastic offsetting credits and neutrality false claims and 32
- What are plastic offsetting credits and neutrality 32
- Faulty assumptions and false reduction 32
- Pollution environmental injustice and waste colonialism 33
- 11. Just transition in the global plastics treaty 35
- Rights holders most harmed by plastic pollution 35
- Key treaty text elements 35
- What just transition could look like in practice for waste pickers 37
- 12. Switching materials or switching systems 39
- Biodegradable compostable and biobased plastics are harmful 39
- The challenge with all single-use products including non-plastic substitutes 39
- Caution with LCA limitations 41
- Best overall eliminate reuse refill 41
- 13. Why circularity wont do the job 42
- Circularity is reduction repair reuse and real recycling 42
- Circularity only helps the environment if and when it displaces new production 43
- Ensuring just levels for planetary boundaries is an overarching systemic principle that the plastics treaty must enshrine 44
- Plastic recycling challenges and possible future 44
- Recycling plastic waste delays its disposal but does not reduce or prevent it 44
- True closed-loop circular plastic recycling is still largely a fiction and therefore cannot be understood as circularity. 44
- 14. Chemical recycling failures 45
- 15. Definitions 48
- Plastics and plastic pollution 48
- Other definitions 49
