International attention is shifting from Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt to Punta del Este, Uruguay. Negotiations on COP-27 closed on November 18 and the first negotiations of the UN treaty to end plastics pollution begin on November 28, 2022. The resolution to create a UN plastics treaty was agreed in March 2022 and negotiators have until 2024 to write the exact text (FPF reported, and here). In the last weeks and months scientists, civil society organizations, and governmental bodies have been publishing their thoughts, opinions, and plans concerning the role plastics play in global health and environmental crises and how the UN should manage them (FPF reported). Some were tailored to the discussions at COP-27 (FPF reported) while many others focused especially on the unprecedented event of negotiating a binding treaty concerning plastics.
These publications discuss how to address the multiple overlapping effects of plastic pollution. However, they also deliberate the negotiation process and ultimate goal of the treaty itself
The draft resolution outlined that the treaty should consider the entire life cycle of plastics, increase knowledge sharing, and include binding targets. But how to get there? One of the first steps of the inaugural meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee will be to adopt rules for the procedure and negotiating structure of the meetings.
To that end, the UN Environment Program (UNEP) asked nations and major stakeholders to submit proposals on how to organize the work. Forty-four countries and the European Union along with 15 stakeholder groups submitted proposals. The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) was one of the civil society groups to respond to the request. Together with other NGO partners, they reviewed the submissions to find those that suggested clustering the negotiations by topic and created an outline of whom and how many suggested what clusters.
Of the thirteen nations with suggestions for clusters, ten suggested negotiations should focus on each life cycle stage. All of these ten suggested clustering negotiations between upstream (e.g., sustainable production, reduction of plastic consumption) and downstream (e.g., waste management), while eight suggested an additional midstream cluster that includes things like product design., Nine countries suggested a cluster on funding and finance or capacity building and transfer. Other clusters suggested by fewer countries included reporting/monitoring (5 countries), definitions (4), and legal issues (3). Six countries and many civil society groups “were concerned about limiting the number of negotiation tracks happening concurrently and/or considering the size of delegations.”
Scientists published comments and letters in journals including Nature in which they encouraged using research to inform action in order to create a “strict and binding” treaty.
Chemical additives
One component that has received a lot of attention is the chemical constituents of plastic. Over 10,000 chemicals are known to be used in plastics (FPF reported). In a letter to Science published in April 2022, Bergmann and co-authors argued for the treaty to control chemicals in plastics along with plastic production. They wrote, “ensuring the safety of every available plastic and chemical is impossible, as their rates of appearance in the environment exceed governments’ capacities to assess associated risks and control problems. Plastic pollutants have altered vital Earth system processes to an extent that exceeds the threshold under which humanity can survive in the future” (FPF reported, also here).
However, the chemical composition of many plastics is not publicly available. Even considering only food contact chemicals, research by the Food Packaging Forum found that approximately two-thirds of chemicals measured in food contact materials were not included in publicly available lists of chemicals used in the manufacturing of these materials (FPF reported).
Many civil society groups focused on human health and the environment agreed with Bergmannn et al. Over 70 organizations have signed a letter asking negotiators to (i) “include ambitious, binding and harmonized requirements for transparency of information on chemicals used in plastic production and in plastic materials and products in the text of the Plastic Treaty.” And (ii) “apply the right to know principle along the whole plastic lifecycle and make the information publicly available to everyone everywhere.”
The organizations argue that lack of transparency on chemicals “undermines the circular economy” and more information would be useful at all steps of the life cycle. “It [chemical transparency] helps enable informed and appropriate decisions on material choice at the design stage, handling of materials during product manufacturing and use of the products, in connection with managing waste, and reuse/recycling of materials.”
Only on November 22, 2022, researchers suggested three steps on plastic chemicals to be included in the plastics treaty: “(1) reducing the complexity of chemicals in plastics, (2) ensuring the transparency of chemicals in plastics, and (3) aligning the right incentives for a systematic transition” (FPF reported). The UN already recognizes some plastic additives are harmful to health through bodies like the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (FPF reported).
Human health
The International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) published a document outlining the ways in which plastics and plastic additives impact health at every step of the material’s life cycle. IPEN outlines the known hazards from fossil fuel extraction, plastic production, chemical migration during use, and exposure during waste management. Other reports by Minderoo and Human Rights Watch have made similar arguments (FPF reported, also here).
To support this aspect of the treaty negotiations, Megan Deeney and other colleagues from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine argued in the journal BMJ Global Health that “global health researchers and practitioners should be prepared, not only to supply evidence of the health risks of plastics and waste reduction strategies, but also to adjudicate claims of plastic health benefits made throughout negotiations.” Deeney et al. encourage the global health community to “generate, synthesize and communicate evidence on complex pathways between plastics, waste reduction strategies and health… ensuring that this treaty will not shift the problem out of sight, to other sections of the life cycle, to other materials with unknown effects, to other countries or communities, or to other facets of health consequences.”
References
Thompson, R. et al. (August 2022). “Plastics treaty — research must inform action.” Nature.
Deeney, M, et al. (November 14, 2022). “Centering human health in the global plastics treaty: a call to action.” BMJ Global Health. DOI: 10.1136/bmjgh-2022-011040
Ammendolia, J. and Walker, T. (November 8, 2022). “Global plastics treaty must be strict and binding.” Nature
IPEN (November 2022). “Enhancing controls to protect human health from plastics.”
CIEL (November 2022). “Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) submissions: Quick view of submissions on clustering and sequencing of work.” (pdf)
Hej! Support (November 2022). “Plastic Treaty – transparency requirement for chemicals constituents in plastic is a must.” Global chemical transparency
Bergmann, M. et al. (April 2022). “A global plastic treaty must cap production.” Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.abq0082 (pdf)
Read more
UN Environment Program (September 13, 2022). “Plastic pollution science.” Pdf
UN Environment Program. “Intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC) on plastic pollution.”
UN Development Program (November 15, 2022). “What do plastics have to do with climate change?”
Meera Subramanian (November 22, 2022). “Plastics tsunami: Can a landmark treaty stop waste from choking the oceans?” Nature
Zhanyun Wang and Antonia Praetorius (November 22, 2022). “Integrating a Chemicals Perspective into the Global Plastic Treaty.” Environmental Science and Technology Letters DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.2c00763
Sarah DeWeerdt (November 16, 2022). “How to make plastic less of an environmental burden.” Nature.
Jamie Hailstone (November 23, 2022). “Why all eyes are on the upcoming negotiation to end plastic pollution.” Forbes
John Geddie and Valerie Volcovici (September 27, 2022). “Exclusive: U.S. seeks allies as split emerges over global plastics pollution treaty.” Reuters
Eline Schaart (November 9, 2022). “Plastics treaty must include binding chemical disclosure requirements, say NGOs.” Chemical Watch
Darrel Moore (November 3, 2022). “UK Government talks to businesses on shaping legally-binding global plastics “treaty”.” Circular
Peter Dennis (November 23, 2022). “Global survey shows 7 out of 10 people support global rules to end plastic pollution.” Circular
