Every single piece of plastic ever made still exists on this planet — this is a line that has become a part of our collective unconscious. To make things clearer, the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) recent report states that at present, 430 million metric tonnes of plastic is produced globally each year. And the way things stand at the moment, plastic production is set to triple by 2060.

"Approximately 7 billion of the 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic produced from 1950-2017 became plastic waste, ending up in landfills or dumped," the UNEP's website stated. To elaborate further, it mentions that every minute as much as a garbage truck's worth of plastic is dumped into the oceans.

The theme for this year's World Environment Day, which is being observed globally today, June 5, is also 'Solutions to Plastic Pollution.' It is a reminder that people's actions on plastic pollution matter.

In March last year, all 193 UN member states decided to put an end to plastic pollution, during the fifth UN Environment Assembly. While the negotiations for the binding legal agreement by 2024 are underway, the recently-concluded United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee-2 (INC-2) meet on plastic pollution agreed to file a “zero draft”' and to put it forth at the INC-3 later this year in Nairobi.

The INC-2 meet was held in Paris last week to discuss a global as well as binding treaty to put an end to plastic pollution. The INC-1 was held in Uruguay's Punta Del Este last year.

"If there is one message, we would like to convey at the closing session of this second INC meeting — is to reaffirm the deep commitment of the global business community to support efforts to secure an ambitious, workable and effective international legally-binding instrument on plastic pollution by 2024," the International Chamber of Commerce said in a closing plenary statement to the INC-2.

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Ahead of the Paris meet, the UNEP had also released its 'Turning Off the Tap: How the World can end Plastic Pollution and Create a Circular Economy' report, which provided a “'compass” for government institutions and an action plan for businesses to put an end to plastic pollution by 2040.

The report suggested that plastic pollution globally could reduce by 80 percent by 2040 if companies and countries decided to make deep policy and market shifts by utilising existing technologies and shifting to a circular economy.

The report mentioned taking a full life-cycle approach to plastics, which meant rethinking every stage from design of the systems and products, plastic production, its uses, disposal and recovery. "Redesign of packaging, systems and products is crucial. Chemical engineers and manufacturers have to get creative, both on products and packaging instead of defaulting to plastic when designing products. Finally, we also need to ensure the safe disposal of whatever is not yet designed to be circular and deal with a significant legacy of existing plastic pollution," said UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen during the launch of the report.

However, "time is of the essence." Any delays in executing the required shifts will result in higher costs as well as 80 MMT additional plastic pollution by 2040, the report added.

The report proposed a systems change to address plastic pollution causes, by combining reducing the most problematic and unnecessary usage of plastics and a market circulation in the direction of circularity in plastics.

And the same is possible to achieve by accelerating — reuse, recyle and reorient and diversify — as well as actions to deal with plastic pollution.

Reuse: The report stated that reusing plastics provided the largest opportunity to reduce plastic pollution (a 30 percent reduction by 2040).

Recycle: If the market for plastic recycling was accelerated by ensuring that the system becomes a more profitable and stable venture, it could reduce the plastic pollution by an additional 20 percent by 2040.

Reorient and diversify: Sustainable alternatives can reduce plastic pollution by 17 percent by 2040. However, it added that even with the approach of market transformation, a significant volume of plastics cannot be made circular in the next one to two decades and would require disposal solutions to prevent pollution.

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Systems change focuses on addressing the causes and not the symptoms of an issue — it requires transformations or adjustments in practices, policies, mindsets, etc.

"Crucially, the economic analysis used in this report shows that delivering the systems change scenario — addressing the causes, rather than symptoms — can save 10.3 percent of the direct costs of the plastics life cycle, a value that increases to 20.3 percent when including indirect costs as well as addressing the benefit to the environment and health," the report stated.

Dealing with plastic pollution is vital for preserving our planet's health and ensuring a sustainable future for future generations, said Anjal Prakash, an author on the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change.

He said plastic waste often ends up in oceans, landfills and rivers, where decomposition takes hundreds of years. As the plastic breaks down, it releases toxic chemicals, which harm the marine life, birds and animals. Plastic toxins can contaminate soil and water and affect the entire food chain and also pose a risk to human health. Also, producing plastic involves extraction and processing of fossil fuels, which leads to carbon emissions that further catalyse climate change.

"Efforts must focus on reducing the production and consumption of single-use plastics, promoting recycling and waste management systems, and fostering the development of alternative materials. Governments, industries, and individuals must collaborate to raise awareness, implement effective policies, and support innovations that offer eco-friendly alternatives," Prakash added.

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(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Jun 5, 2023 5:54 PM IST