In a world reliant on plastics, there is an increasing need for a viable plastic substitute to limit waste, according to Hauke Kite-Powell, a research specialist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
“If we are going to limit plastic production, we are going to have to change the way plastic is used,” Kite-Powell said. “We have to think really hard about substitutes. In the history of global regulation, most of the real success stories have been where substitutes were available.”
The Boston College Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society and the Global Observatory on Planetary Health co-sponsored a conference on Oct. 16, discussing the 2022 United Nations plastics treaty. Moderated by BC Law School professor David Wirth, the panel featured presentations by several experts in the public policy and oceanography fields.
The audience received a handout that explained the goals of the resolution. The handout advocated for a global cap on plastic production, extended producer responsibility, and mandated full disclosure of the chemicals in plastics. It also called for a ban on all forms of plastic combustion.
“On March 2, 2022, the UN Environment Assembly adopted a historic resolution to develop a global plastics treaty,” the handout read. “The goal is to reduce plastic pollution, including ocean pollution, and microplastics, across the entire plastics life cycle.”
Wirth began the conference with a pop culture reference to stress the costs of using plastics. Wirth also said the United Nations states (UN) endorsed a resolution for the plastics treaty in March of 2022. According to Wirth, the UN produced a zero draft in September, which laid the foundation for a legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution. The zero draft will be negotiated for a third round in Nairobi in November.
“First of all, I just wanted to give you a brief introduction of how we happened to get here. [The first slide] will be familiar to everybody of a certain age, being a scene from The Graduate, in which plastics are presented as the seductive future,” Wirth said. “We now know that they are not so seductive and come with costs as well.”
Philip Landrigan, director of both the program for global public health and the common good and the Global Observatory on Planetary Health, also spoke at the conference. According to Landrigan, the production, use, and recycling process of plastic pose hazardous effects on human health, as chemicals can leach out from the plastic and into laborers’ bodies.
Landrigan also presented the health care costs that resulted from all phases of plastic use, which totaled over $1.2 trillion per year.
“Time and again, I have seen a lack of complete knowledge about the hazards of the chemicals used as an excuse to take no action to regulate chemicals in plastics,” Landrigan said. “I don’t think we have that luxury.”
Kite-Powell followed Landrigan by explaining that the most prominent plastic litter issue facing the ocean is microplastics, which are colonized by biological films, end up on the ocean floor, and are consumed by bottom feeders, leading to the initiation of plastic into the food cycle.
“Everywhere ocean researchers look in the ocean, including the Arctic, they find microplastics,” Kite-Powell said.
The conference then shifted to the discussion of the UN plastics treaty negotiations. Maria Ivanova, director of Northeastern University School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, said Rwanda expanded the 2022 resolution to include issues outside of marine plastics.
According to Ivanova, Rwanda banned single-use plastics entirely—without providing a direct substitute. Ivanova added that the components of an effective policy are legislation and regulation on national levels, management, reporting, technical processes, and financial aspects.
Joshua Lincoln, a senior fellow at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, discussed the importance of treaty design and negotiations.
According to Lincoln, the most successful treaties strike a balance between effectiveness and ambition, and for the plastics treaty to be successful, the UN council must take into account measures of effectiveness and financial feasibility.
Ivanova emphasized the role of universities in fostering conversation and debate around the new plastics policies.
“As I mentioned, continue discussing these issues and moderating the science and policy discussions in these intergovernmental negotiations, and I think that is the space where we, as academic institutions not only have an opportunity, but have an obligation to engage,” Ivanova said.
