International legally binding instrument on plastic pollution in the works

The inter-governmental negotiating committee to develop an international legally binding instrument for plastic pollution, including issues found in the marine environment, started its negotiations this week.

Earlier this year, countries at the United Nations Environment Assembly agreed to work toward an international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution.

Delegates finalised the first round of deliberations at the inaugral meeting of inter-governmental negotiating committee, which took place on Friday, in Uruguay. At the meeting, the delegates considered the scope, objectives, and options for potential elements to be included in this international legally binding instrument.

This move was approved in light of recent reports of microplastics being found in human blood and breast milk.

"The importance of the active and constructive engagement of all stakeholders for an ambitious and meaningful outcome of the intergovernmental negotiating committee process must be highlighted," said Jyoti Mathur-Filipp, Executive Secretary of the Plastic Pollution INC Secretariat.

Along with the need for pathways for novel, inclusive, and networked multilateralism to give voice to a broader set of stakeholders. She said the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) is in favour of continuing the multistakeholder forum throughout the next two years to negotiate an effective agreement.

In a keynote presentation, UNEP Economy Division Director Sheila Aggarwal-Khan, walked participants through the content of the INC document on plastics science. The report investigated how the plastics economy can shift from a linear and resourceinefficient economy to a circular economy and how this could happen.

Adopting a life cycle analysis, the report proposed four strategic goals to guide the transition to a circular plastics economy:

■ reducing the size of the problem by eliminating unnecessary and problematic plastics, such as singleuse plastics and those containing hazardous additives

■ designing plastic products for circularity „ ■ circulating plastics in practice, through reuse, recycling, or composting; and

■ managing plastic waste that has not been reused or recycled.

The report calls for harmonised measures and legal obligations, in view of the cross-border movement of plastics to level the playing field, and for taking a comprehensive and integrated approach to solutions across the life cycle of plastics, in regulatory, economic, behavioural, and trade areas.

Alethia Vázquez Morillas, from Mexico's Autonomous Metropolitan University, said circularity had limits, because the technology needed more elements than what was available now, and called for transparency from the industry to know more about the components in plastics.

Throughout the discussions, Sri Lanka raised the issue of transboundary waste pollution and noted insufficient data flows from the world health organisation.

Sri Lanka also called for online fora and written submissions to feed into the INC process and urged for support for bankrupt countries.

Sri Lanka’s legislation on consumer plastics had picked up pace as of late with the Environment Ministry enforcing packing regulations.

However, a Centre for Environmental Justice research study conducted last year, showed that Sri Lanka had more than 400 companies engaged in plastic processing. A total sum of Rs.15 Bn had been invested in plastics re-processing in Sri Lanka, 50% of which had come through foreign direct investments.

Moreover, 66 % of this total investment was exclusively for the re-processing of plastic products for the export market. The main polymers used for producing single-use plastics were HDPE, LDPE,

PET, PP, PS, and

EPS.2. The capacity of local plastic processing industry at present was nearly

140,000 MT annually, with an annual average growth rate of around 10%. – 12%.

Plastic exports could be divided into two forms, that is primary forms of plastic exports and finished products of exports. The United States of America had been the dominant buyer of Sri Lankan plastic products with nearly 40% of the total exports going to the US market.

Products such as sacks, bags, garments, clothing accessories, and cellulose are manufactured through plastic processing and are exported directly and indirectly. Around 500,000 MT of total plastic, which included raw materials and plastic items such as furniture and toys were imported into Sri Lanka annually.

It was estimated that Sri Lanka earns US$ two million in foreign exchange via imports and exports of plastics where imports made up around 160,000 MT of plastic raw materials and around 140,000 MT of finished goods along with intermediate products every year.

Apart from this Sri Lanka was also subjected to disastrous plastic pollution in its marine environment due to the fire onboard the X-Press Pearl, which was assessed as the world’s worst case of plastic pollution from a maritime disaster. The lack of legislation was a severe stumbling block in Sri Lanka’s bid for compensation most of which still remained unpaid.