Goal: to put a stop to plastic

The pollution of terrestrial and aquatic systems by plastics that humans consume and whose waste we do not manage well, is one of those environmental problems that we already measure in millions of tons: every year, more than 20 million tons of plastic (the equivalent of 1,770 truckloads every day) are thrown into nature. The scenarios that are proposed for the coming decades point to a considerable increase in these discharges into the environment if the problem is not solved. And to address it, more and more experts are contemplating only one solution: curbing the production of plastic, a petroleum derivative that is also one of the fossil fuels responsible for the climate crisis.

It is not enough for a country to act on its own and impose vetoes, it is necessary to take coordinated action on an issue that, as with most environmental problems, transcends borders. Because just as waste travels from one nation to another (usually from a rich nation to a poor one) to be supposedly managed and ends up dumped into nature, plastic travels through rivers to pollute the oceans – and even the air – across countries and continents.

Since 1992, climate change has had a framework convention created within the UN to address the great global crisis of global warming. It gave rise in 2015 to the Paris Agreement, which governs all efforts to eradicate greenhouse gas emissions that have led the Earth to the current state of exceptionality.

In that sense, 2024 should be the equivalent of 2015, but focused on plastic pollution. The countries represented at the UN decided that by the end of the year the world should have the first treaty to curb this pollution.

For the author of these images, like real UFOs, plastics invade the seas and oceans of our planet, crossing countries and continents. Carlos de Paz

The complex process to develop such an international agreement began in 2022 and has continued apace until the end of 2023. But the last meeting in Nairobi last November woke many from the dream of reaching a quick agreement. Because, as diplomatic sources monitoring the process explain, the nations most reluctant to fully address the problem and with the most vested interests (led by the oil producers) are slowing down the negotiations. In that sense, it is now more complicated to have the treaty approved by the end of 2024. In addition, fears are growing that some of the mistakes made with the Paris Agreement in 2015 will be repeated.

Let's get back to the data. Plastic pollution is already measured in hundreds of millions of tons, but to find the origins you don't have to go back thousands of years, just a handful of decades. In 1950, the world's plastic production was barely two million tons. Three decades later, in 1980, it had multiplied almost 40-fold to 75 million tons. At the moment, more than 460 million are already produced each year. And the vast majority – around 95% – is primary plastic, meaning only 5% comes from recycling. This is due to how easy and cheap it is to manufacture, among other things, because the costs that its production and disposal cause to society are not well transferred to its price. In short, we live in the generation of single-use plastic.

All this data comes from different reports prepared by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), whose experts warn of a negative scenario of evolution of the problem if policies do not change: by 2040 the global production of plastics will reach 765 million tonnes, of which only 9.5% will be recycled. By 2060, it will reach 1,230 million tonnes, and only 11.6% will come from secondary recycling.

To better understand the matter, it is good to know what we use plastic for. Their first destination (up to 30%) is containers and packaging. In other words, products with a very short shelf life. It is followed at a distance by construction, vehicles and clothing. The second key is to know where these plastics end up after use: according to the latest OECD data, of the 360 million tonnes of plastic waste generated in 2020, only 9.4% was recycled. 18.6 per cent were incinerated and 50 per cent ended up in landfills. 22.5%, or 81 million tonnes, was not well managed and ended up polluting the environment.

Depending on its composition, plastic, like the one in this bottle, takes between 100 and 1,000 years to degrade. Carlos de Paz

It is estimated that more than 20 million tonnes of plastics are dumped uncontrollably every year. 30% ends up in rivers and seas and the remaining 70% on land. By 2040, the horizon for the objectives and commitments of the plastics treaty, according to OECD experts, is that discharges will grow by 50%, to almost 30 million tons per year. The problem is the same again: the absence of reuse. By 2040, the OECD estimates that if current policies do not change, only 14.2% of plastic waste will be recycled, up from 9.4% today. We're not learning the lesson.

For this reason, many countries – including the European Union, a good number of Latin American and African nations – insist that the future treaty being negotiated at the UN must really cover the entire life cycle of plastics, which would lead to setting limits on the production of virgin products. But a number of other nations are now trying to ensure that this pact only proposes measures related to pollution, that is, once the problem has occurred, and not to its redirection from the source. That group includes, according to diplomatic sources, nations such as Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, Iran and Egypt.

To some extent this is similar to the Paris Agreement, which targets greenhouse gases, but does not directly address the reduction of production of oil, gas and coal, i.e. fossil fuels, which are the main contributors to those emissions.

The Paris Agreement also sets a common goal and then countries submit climate plans in which each country decides on its own emissions reduction target. This model is the one that the less ambitious states (and the United States) are also contemplating for this hypothetical plastics pact. The most committed nations, however, urge that the treaty propose concrete measures against certain plastics and chemical products that are binding on all its signatories.

One of the biggest difficulties lies in the rules of procedure, that is, how these types of disputes are settled between negotiators. Initially, it had been proposed that this plastics treaty should be open to the possibility that in order to break the deadlock situations, a vote could be taken and that a proposal could be approved by two-thirds of the countries. But less ambitious states now want the same Paris formula: all decisions must be made by consensus, which can lead to a minority blocking any progress and the global ambition of a pact that should curb plastic pollution by 2024.

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