Earth is suffocating under tons of plastic — can delegates agree on a global plastics treaty? – Image: Joy Saha/ZUMA Press/picture alliance
More than 170 countries are negotiating a binding agreement to slash fossil plastic production and pollution. The oil industry claims we can recycle our way out of the problem.
After a failed attempt to finalize a global plastics treaty last year in Busan, South Korea, 170 countries are meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, until August 14 to negotiate a binding agreement on reducing plastic waste.
Delegates will decide the extent to which plastic production should be limited and also the design, disposal and waste management of plastic across its whole lifecycle.
Worldwide, 413 million tons of plastic are produced annually, enough to fill over half a million Olympic swimming pools. Just 9% of this is recycled.
The rest is incinerated or ends up in landfills or the ocean. Along the way, it pollutes the soil and harms wildlife and human health. Microplastics have found their way into every corner of the planet — and the human body.
Plastic producers try to limit cuts
Around 100 countries across Africa, Latin America, the EU and beyond — the so-called High Ambition Coalition — are pushing for a progressive agreement that includes, among other things, a significant reduction in plastic production.
Plastic is produced predominantly with oil, a fossil fuel that is a main driver of human-made climate change.
To achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, plastic production must be cut by at least 12 to 19%, according to Melanie Bergmann, a biologist at the Germany-based Alfred Wegener Institute that specializes in marine research.
Standing in the way of a meaningful reduction are plastic manufacturing countries and oil producers — including Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia — who in Geneva are banded under the Like-Minded Coalition.
Florian Titze, head of international policy at environmental NGO WWF, notes that oil and plastic producers oppose including policies like single-use plastic bans in the agreement.
The pro-plastics lobby argues that the plastic crisis is founded on “poor waste management” and cannot be solved by limiting demand, notes Titze. Therefore, they want an agreement that focuses on plastic collection, consumer information and higher recycling rates. However, this would not stop overproduction, which Titze believes is the actual source of the problem.
Virginia Janssens, managing director of Plastics Europe, which represents plastic producers in the region, warns against “oversimplified measures such as capping global production of primary plastics.”
While she admits that plastic pollution is a serious problem, solutions require “system-wide collaboration, not just within our sector, but across value chains, public authorities and more broadly,” Janssens told DW.
Lagos banned single-use plastics to tackle the huge plastic pollution problem in Nigeria’s biggest city – Image: DW
Recycling will not solve the problem
Although recycling and waste management are important parts of combating the plastics crisis, they remain limited without reducing the amount of plastic, explained Bergmann, who will accompany the German delegation at the treaty negotiations.
“If the amount of plastic in circulation increases every year, then we will need more and more of these infrastructures [for recycling and waste management],” said the scientist. “We can already see in the richer parts of the world that our systems cannot cope, despite the huge budget that we are already allocating to this.”
And that is despite a nation like Germany spending around €16 billion ($18.5 million) annually on waste management, water purification and combating environmental pollution.
Hypocrisy from Germany and the EU?
With around eight million tons of plastic produced annually, Germany is by far the largest plastic manufacturer in Europe, followed by Belgium and France.
Globally, one-third of all plastics come from China, and just under 20% from other Asian countries and North America.
Meanwhile, per capita annual plastic consumption in North America and Europe is 94 kilograms (207 pounds) and 85 kilograms, respectively. In China, the figure is 58 kilograms.
Some experts who are close to the talks say it is hypocritical that the most ambitious countries demanding drastic plastic production cuts are the biggest plastic consumers.
“Everybody is claiming to be super ambitious. I mean, at some point, it’s even becoming perverse,” said Aleksandar Rankovic, the founder of the Common Initiative environmental think tank and a regular observer at the treaty negotiations.
He warns against placing responsibility solely on oil-producing countries and manufacturers and doubts that a binding target to produce a “sustainable level” of plastic can be achieved since it is too vague.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety says it’s necessary to reduce primary plastic production to support a circular economy approach that aims to minimize resource consumption and keep materials in use for as long as possible — in addition to recycling.
Italy, Spain, and France share this view and are promoting a corresponding position in the EU.
The power of the plastics lobby
In addition to national negotiating teams, hundreds of stakeholders from the plastics and chemical industries are expected in Geneva.
“My experience is that there has been quite a bit of lobbying and efforts to undermine science around plastics that has been increasing over the past few years,” explains Bethanie Carney Almroth, an ecotoxicologist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden who researches the harmful effects of chemicals in plastics — high ambition countries also want to reduce toxin levels in plastics.
Last year, more lobbyists attended the treaty round in Busan than all the delegates from the European Union member states combined.
Carney Almroth says the industry is trying to cast doubt on the credibility of science with its own biased studies.
But Janssens of Plastics Europe told DW that the association and its members “recognize the importance of independent science.”
“Ensuring evidence-based dialogue and decision-making is critical to finding the most effective solutions,” she added.
Carney Almroth, meanwhile, says scientists like herself have been defamed and intimidated in emails, in the media, or in letters to the editors of scientific publications.
She claims that at a conference in Canada, a representative of the packaging industry stormed into the lecture hall and accused her of spreading misinformation. After Carney Almroth filed a complaint with the UN, the man was forced to apologize.
Will it remain a historic opportunity?
Rankovic does not believe that a groundbreaking agreement will be adopted in Geneva, but rather a kind of framework convention, a minimum consensus that could then be built upon in the coming years.
Nonetheless, with plastic production set to double in the next 20 years, time is running out.
With an agreement, there is a historic opportunity to start limiting plastic pollution, says Bergmann.
“If I didn’t believe that something could be achieved here, I wouldn’t need to go.” (DW.com/NAN 06-08-25)
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