Waste and the environment: fail: wrestling around global plastic waste agreements

In the struggle for a global agreement to contain the plastic waste, there is no agreement in sight in Geneva. The expected final meeting was postponed to the evening on Thursday, and if the conference chairman does not throw the towel at the last minute due to the lack of a view of a compromise, there should be a night session in Geneva.

A good 180 countries agree that the flood of plastic in seas, on mountains, in the air and now also in the human body is a great danger. But they argue about what to do about it. The countries have been negotiating for three years. The contract text should be finished in Geneva. The implementation would take years due to the necessary ratifications.

The irreconcilable positions

On the one hand, there are more than 100 countries with particularly ambitious goals (High Ambition Coalition), which require a limitation of plastic production to a sustainable level. This includes Germany, the EU and dozens of countries in South America, Africa and Asia. They also want to pull disposable plastic such as cups or cutlery, promote plastic products for multiple use and a circular economy in which the raw materials of a waste product are prepared and used again.

On the other hand, there are above all the countries that have the raw material for the plastic: oil. These include Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia. They call themselves the group of like-minded people (Like-Minded Group). You would like to limit yourself largely to better waste management.

However, the order that the UN countries gave themselves in 2022 was actually clear: the mandate states that the contract should include the entire life cycle of the plastic, from production and design to disposal.

Compromise that was not one

The conference chairman Luis Vayas Valdivieso presented something on Wednesday that he called compromise paper – but the outrage was great. He had deleted practically all ambitious or controversial destinations from the text, including Article 6 without replacement to limit production. Hardly anyone saw it a basis for negotiation for a final text. Even the oil countries were not satisfied: on behalf of the group, Saudi Arabia criticized other paragraphs, which, for example, recommended research on plastic alternatives or a liability of plastic producers.

What plastic does with ecosystems and people

Plastic flashes and the environment and poisoned ecosystems, kills fish and other living things and endangers human health. The smallest particles are increasingly found in organs and also in the brain. According to studies, the nano and microplasty particles affect the immune system, among other things, can settle in arteries and promote inflammation.

There are numerous numbers for pollution. The following come from the German Ministry of the Environment: From the 1970s to 2020, plastic production has sifted to 367 tons a year and could reach almost 600 million tons a year without measures. A large part are disposable products, including packaging. A total of 8.3 billion tons of plastic have been produced so far and have become 6.3 billion tons of waste, which largely landed on landfills. According to estimates, 152 million tons of plastic waste have accumulated in rivers and oceans.