Plastic pollution is altering the processes of the entire Earth system, exacerbating climate change, loss of biodiversity, ocean acidification and the use of fresh water and land, according to scientific analysis.
Plastic should not only be treated as a waste problem, the authors said, but as a product that harms ecosystems and human health.
The authors issued their warning in the days before final talks begin in South Korea to agree a legally binding global treaty to reduce plastic pollution. Progress towards a treaty on plastic pollution has been blocked by a row over the need to make cuts to the $712 billion plastics manufacturing industry in the treaty. At the last talks in April were developed countries accused of bowing to pressure from fossil fuel and industry lobbyists to stay away from any reduction in production. The discussions in South Korea, which start on 25 Novembermarks a rare opportunity for countries to come to an agreement to tackle the global crisis of plastic pollution.
In 2022, at least 506 million tons of plastic will be produced worldwide, but only 9% will be recycled worldwide. The rest is burned, landfilled or dumped where it can leach into the environment. Microplastics are now everywhere, from the summit of Mount Everest on the Mariana Trenchthe deepest point on earth.
The new study of plastic pollution examined the growing evidence of the effects of plastic on the environment, health and human well-being. The authors call on delegates at the UN talks to stop viewing plastic pollution as simply a waste problem, and to instead tackle material flow through the entire lifecycle of plastics, from raw material extraction, production and use, to the release from the environment and its fate. , and the Earth system effects.
“It is necessary to consider the full life cycle of plastic, from fossil fuel extraction and primary plastic polymer production,” said the article’s lead author, Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez, at Stockholm Resilience Center.
The research team showed that plastic pollution changes the processes of the entire Earth system and affects all pressing global environmental problems, including climate change, loss of biodiversity, ocean acidification and the use of fresh water and land.
“Plastics are seen as those inert products that protect our favorite products, or that make our lives easier that can be “cleaned up easily” once they become waste,” said Villarrubia-Gómez. “But this is far from reality. Plastic is made from the combination of thousands of chemicals. Many of them, such as endocrine disruptors and forever chemicals, pose toxicity and damage to ecosystems and human health. We need to see plastic as the combination of these chemicals that we interact with on a daily basis.”
Plastics treaty talks have attracted a large number of fossil fuel and industry lobbyists. At the last talks in Ottawa, Canada, 196 lobbyists have registeredhigher than the 143 who registered at the previous discussions in Nairobi.
Most single-use plastics (98%) are made from fossil fuels, and the top seven plastic producing companies are fossil fuel companies, according to data from 2021.
The chairman of the UN treaty talks said the entire life cycle of plastic should be included in the mandate. “What is clear is that we cannot manage the amount of plastic we produce,” said Luis Vayas Valdivieso, also the Ecuadorian ambassador to the United Kingdom. “Only 10% of it is recycled, something has to be done, which is why these negotiations are so important. We need to have the whole life cycle approach.”
Prof Bethanie Carney Almroth, from the University of Gothenburg, a co-author of the report, said: “We are now finding plastic in the most remote regions of the planet and in the most intimate, inside human bodies. And we know that plastics are complex materials released into the environment through the plastic life cycle, resulting in damage in many systems.
“The solutions we strive to develop must be considered with this complexity in mind, addressing the full spectrum of safety and sustainability to protect people and the planet.”
