New York — They are lightweight, cheap, and able to be used in every sector of every supply chain. Few materials have revolutionized manufacturing and the global economy as much as plastics have. They are essential in almost everything, however this comes at a cost. A cost of 1.5 trillion annually in environmental damage, and a 75 percent waste ratio of all plastic ever produced.
Even though there have been biodiversity protection agreements through the Paris Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), no comprehensive global agreement has responded to the challenges that plastic pollution presents. To bridge this gap, the focus of the International Negotiating Committee (INC-5.2), mandated by the United Nations Environment Assembly resolution 5/14 in 2022, was tasked with developing a legally binding instrument (ILBI) on plastic pollution. The latest rounds of these negotiations are scheduled to take place in Geneva this year from August 5-14.
During the previous year’s sessions, which were held in Busan, South Korea, INC-5.1 in Busan, Republic of Korea, INC Chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso, the Ecuadorian ambassador to the United Kingdom remarked: “Our mandate has always been ambitious. But ambition takes time to land.” He added: “I call on all delegations to continue making paths, building bridges, and engaging in dialogue. Let us always remember that our purpose is noble and urgent: to reverse and remedy the severe effects of plastic pollution on ecosystems and human health.”
This kind of damage results in at least 1,400 wildlife species being negatively impacted annually. Plastic leaks into marine life, and disproportionate operational capacity to collect, reuse, and recycle plastics by developing countries, which are not the ones producing the waste in the first place. The reliance on fossil fuels for creating plastics which generate 1.96 gigaton (Gt) of C02 equivalent. These plastics create a triple planetary crisis of pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change.
“We are choking on plastic,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “Plastic pollution is all around us and even inside us – from our seas to our blood, to our brains…Every year, people may ingest the equivalent of up to fifty plastic bags due to microplastics in food.”
The producer of plastic
The demand for plastic products is fulfilled through trade, making trade the propagator of most plastic pollution. Much of global plastic production is designed for single use, which has grown from two million metric tonnes (MMT) in 1950 to 436 MMT in 2022, a 217-fold increase. If trade practices resume as usual, this annual production of plastic is expected to increase to 884 MMt by 2050, meaning plastic production is growing at a rate 2.65 times faster than it did from 1950 to 2022, growing from 6.03 MMT per year to 16 MMT per year.
In 2022, over 78 percent — 323 MMT — of plastic produced was traded internationally in primary, intermediate, and embedded forms. The value of plastics trade grew more than double since 2005 to USD 1.13 trillion. Accounting for 5 percent of global merchandise trade that year, this was a display of its dominance across all sectors of trade.
A solution to the pollution
As trade dominates plastic production, integrated environmental trade policy becomes the number one priority in halting further environmental impacts and controlling plastic flows. This kind of policy can incentivize investment while also offering safer alternatives creating working environmental waste management.
A proven policy to reduce plastic use has been seen with tariff measures, which can reduce market competitiveness of plastic products. Establishing these measures would require a comprehensive value chain approach, analyzing how plastic is produced, moved, and disposed through its entire life span. The removal of tariff measures has been a main driver in increased plastic production. Over the past 30 years, tariffs on plastic and rubber have dropped from 34 percent to 7.2 percent, largely due to the implementation of the Uruguay Round Agreements under the World Trade Organization (WTO), among numerous bilateral and regional free trade agreements leading to net zero tariffs on plastics and rubber products.
Plant-based plastic alternatives did not benefit from such free trade agreements, instead now averaging 14.4 percent, creating a lack of competitiveness for products with natural origins. Non-tariff measures (NTMs) have seen some levels of implementation across national levels. These are most commonly found as technical regulations on product specifications, and production methods and packaging requirements, of which 195 of the 299 notified measures by the WTO are.
To combat plastic pollution even further, UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has identified promising replacing measures which would implement sustainable non-plastic substitutes and alternatives focusing on packaging, agriculture, and fishery applications.
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UNCTAD’s database identified 274 traded products of plant, mineral or animal origin that could replace plastics across various sectors. These value chain swaps could involve using glass, aluminum paper, bamboo, seaweed, and natural fibers instead of plastics, due to their biodegradable, erodible, compostable, and recyclable natures. These materials have already been tried and tested to work, it is only a matter of implementation and market growth.
Currently, plastic alternatives such as compostable and bio-based plastics are available in many developed and developing country markets, with massive potential to grow as they currently represent 1.5 percent of global plastic production. In 2023, global exports of non-plastic substitutes reached USD 485 billion, down from 561 billion in 2022: mirroring a small drop in plastic trade. Developed countries made up 58 percent of exports, while developing countries held 42 percent, but with an observed 5.6 percent growth rate.
IPS UN Bureau Report
