UN Plastic Pollution Report Will Result In 100 Million Tons Of Plastic Pollution Every Year

Greenpeace Aotearoa has slammed a report from the United Nations Environment Program today on how to address the plastic pollution crisis, saying it will allow millions more tons of plastic pollution to end up in the environment each year.

The UNEP report, ‘Turning off the Tap: How the world can end plastic pollution and create a circular economy’, was released yesterday, a week before the second round of negotiations towards a Global Plastics Treaty at the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC2).

Greenpeace Aotearoa plastics campaigner Juressa Lee says the report fails to address the scale of the plastics crisis because it does not address the role of plastic production.

"The numbers in the report are not good enough, and won’t do near enough to tackle the problem. It proposes a plan that still results in 100 million tons of plastic pollution every year for the next 17 years."

"The major flaw is that the report fails to address the role of plastics production in creating the problem, and leans heavily on dangerous false solutions like incineration."

Lee says a treaty that fails to deliver major reductions in plastic production and use will result in more devastating impacts on our health, our communities, biodiversity, and the climate.

The report also references a ‘plastic circular economy’, a term Lee says has been hijacked by those determined to keep producing plastic at catastrophic rates.

"Plastic is not circular, and the use of this term shows how important indigenous participation and indigenous knowledge can be in leading Global Plastics Treaty discussions. An indigenous worldview would characterise circularity as regenerative and restorative. Plastic is neither of those things."

Next week, delegations continue negotiations to develop a strong and ambitious Global Plastics Treaty in Paris. Greenpeace Aotearoa is calling for a treaty firmly grounded in a human-rights based approach that reduces inequality, prioritises human health and ends runaway plastic production.

© Scoop Media