They have one week to find common ground. Negotiations on a future global treaty against plastic pollution resumed on Monday in Paris, at the headquarters of UNESCO. "If we do nothing, the generation of plastic waste will triple again by 2,060. Plastic pollution is therefore a time bomb at the same time as a scourge already present, "said the French president, in a video message to representatives of 175 nations.
According to the head of state, "we must definitively put an end to a globalized and unsustainable model that consists of producing plastic in China or in OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries, and then exporting it as waste to developing countries, which are less well equipped with waste treatment systems."
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"The primary objective must be to reduce the production of new plastics and to ban as soon as possible the most polluting products - such as single-use plastics - and those that are most dangerous to health," Macron said.
15% of plastic is recycled worldwide
While "only 15% of plastic is recycled globally", "100% of plastics on the market must be fully recyclable tomorrow," he continues, pleading like fifty other countries for an end to plastic pollution by 2040.
"We must also give ourselves the means to innovate stronger, and faster, to replace plastic with truly ecological alternatives," says Emmanuel Macron. And he believes that it is necessary to "better share solutions, technologies, and ensure solidarity with the poorest countries".
Divergent ambitions
Negotiations are delicate between countries with divergent ambitions, to try to reach a historic agreement covering the entire life cycle of plastic. The President of the Republic recalls "the objective of reaching an agreed text by the end of 2024, one year before the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice".
Annual production has more than doubled in 20 years to 460 million tonnes. However, two-thirds of this global production has a short lifespan and becomes waste to be managed after one or a few uses. 22% are abandoned (landfills, open incineration or dumping into the wild) and less than 10% is recycled.