What’s Missing from the Global Plastics Treaty? Sectors.
5 Gyres Institute Responds to the Draft Global Plastics Treaty
The UN Environment Programme released a treaty Zero Draft to be negotiated at the upcoming INC-3 in November in Nairobi, Kenya. With more than 171 trillion plastic particles afloat in the world’s ocean, we are excited to see world leaders taking action to address the issue at the source. And as our research shows, global agreements like this one have been successful in the past when they are legally binding, enforceable, and focus on preventative strategies.
However, we know that plastic pollution is complex and it's not a singular issue. The zero draft addresses fishing gear and single-use plastics, but what about car tires, textiles, agricultural waste, or the many other sectors of plastic use in society? The UNEP document references “fishing gear” 8 times, single-use plastics” 11 times, but “textiles” 0 times, even though textiles are the second most discarded type of plastic globally. Our paper identifies 17 sectors, each encompassing different polymers, chemical additives, product and packaging design, pathways to the environment, and environmental and social impacts. Therefore, any effective policy must be nuanced to address these differences or should outline a strategy for a more comprehensive approach in the near future. Sector-specific solutions are missing from the treaty zero draft, and this omission has the unintended consequence of advocating downstream narratives.
Learn more about the different sectors in our Trash Academy series
During the last two International Negotiating Committee (INC) events, there have been downstream stakeholders heavily lobbying cleanup technologies and advanced recycling narratives. These are not mitigation strategies, but rather waste recovery and management. Cleanup technologies can be problematic and require tremendous oversight and additional research to determine effectiveness. Advanced recycling has yet to prove itself at scale, despite the technology being several decades old. An overemphasis on these downstream ideas, rather than upstream preventative strategies, inserts bias that must be eliminated.
Ahead of INC-3, we encourage Member States to consider the various sectors of plastic use in society, de-emphasize advanced recycling, and regulate cleanup technologies, in order to negotiate a strong, effective global plastics treaty.