A robust Plastics Treaty is needed to protect global health

Last year, 175 nations agreed to develop a legally binding agreement to tackle plastic pollution. One year from now, these countries will conclude negotiations for the world’s first international Plastics Treaty, which aims to stem the health and environmental threats we face from toxic plastics.

Recent negotiations however indicate the need to avoid false solutions and focus on the root causes of the plastics problem.

Scientific studies have found that plastics and chemical pollution have already outpaced the planet’s ability to tolerate these threats. Even more disturbing, projections suggest that plastic production could triple in the coming decades, meaning this breach of the planetary boundaries for sustainable living could become disastrous for life on Earth.

Plastics are made with fossil fuels and thousands of chemicals, many that are known to be highly toxic, as well as thousands of other substances that have never been studied and may be just as harmful.

At every stage of the plastics life cycle – from production, transport, use, and disposal – chemicals are released and can expose people, leading to serious health consequences. Chemicals in plastics have been linked to cancer, heart disease, infertility, impacts on brain development, and many other health conditions.

The oceans carry plastic pollution globally, and these harmful plastic chemicals have been found even in the most remote regions of the Arctic, where Indigenous communities now face high rates of health problems related to chemical exposures.

While chemicals and plastics production are increasing in many regions, vulnerable communities, including Indigenous communities, are disproportionately impacted by plastic pollution, though they do not benefit from the profits of the plastics industry.

Wealthy countries also export their plastic trash to low- and middle-income countries, so communities in these countries also face unequal health and environmental costs from plastic pollution.

For example, the African continent is not a major producer of plastics, but wealthy countries export their plastics and plastic waste to Africa, often under the guise of recycling, bringing along harmful chemicals that pose health risks to children and families.

To solve the plastics problem, we must first adequately frame the problem. Plastic pollution has been viewed as a problem of visible plastic waste, but there is now widespread agreement that a Plastics Treaty must address the invisible threats from chemicals prevalent throughout the plastics life cycle.

Clearly the planet cannot tolerate an increase in plastics production – the overwhelming evidence shows that we must reduce plastics production to protect human health and the environment.

Citing risks to human health from chemicals in plastic, public health experts have called for innovations for safer alternatives to plastics. Unfortunately, at the most recent Plastics Treaty negotiations in Nairobi earlier this month, there was inadequate attention paid to the need for a treaty that limits plastic production.

While there is broad agreement that chemicals from plastics pose health and environmental threats, the negotiations remain too focused on plastic as a waste management problem, with plastic recycling promoted as a key solution. But plastic recycling does not address the health threats from chemicals in plastics. In fact, recycling can spread these toxic chemicals even further.

Studies by IPEN and others have shown that products made from recycled plastics contain and can release toxic chemicals, including in some cases new highly toxic chemicals that are produced by the recycling process. Another recent study showed that toxic chemicals are released throughout the plastic recycling stream, posing health threats to waste pickers, recycling workers, communities, and consumers.

Unfortunately, the recent Nairobi discussions were stalled by a small group of major fossil fuel producers and exporters, who are attempting to divert attention from the root of the plastics and chemicals problem and seeking to limit the ambition of the Treaty with a focus on plastic recycling.

Backed by the fossil fuels and plastics industries, these countries claim that “circular” plastics, materials that can be safely reused and recycled, will resolve the plastic pollution problem. But because toxic chemicals are used in making plastics, increasing science shows that there are no safe and circular plastics.

A forthcoming study from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology noted that there are more than 16,000 chemicals used in plastics, noting that “no plastic chemical (can be) classified as safe.” Data published this month found hundreds of chemicals, including numerous highly toxic pesticides, in recycled plastic material collected from 13 countries.

Correspondence in the prestigious journal Science by researchers from IPEN, the University of Gothenburg, Aarhus University, and the University of Exeter noted that “Hazardous chemicals present risks to recycling workers and consumers, as well as to the wider society and environment… Before recycling can contribute to tackling the plastics pollution crisis, the plastics industry must limit hazardous chemicals.”

While the problems we face are challenging, they are not insurmountable. We can make changes, starting with promoting the development and use of safer and more sustainable materials.

We need to move pressures and responsibilities for solving plastics pollution away from the communities and consumers who experience health and environmental harms, and place responsibility instead on the fossil fuels, petrochemicals, and plastics industries to resolve the problems created by their products.

A Plastics Treaty must consider the full life cycle of plastics and associated chemicals. It must recognise and protect our right to live healthy, productive lives, free from the health and environmental threats from plastics and chemicals.

It must also recognize that the toxic chemicals in plastics make them inherently incompatible with non-toxic, circular economic approaches, and understand that we cannot recycle our way out of the plastics problem.

In short, IPEN is calling for a Plastics Treaty that:

• Protects human health and the environment; • Ends the production and use of toxic chemicals in plastics; • Removes toxic impacts at all stages of the lifecycle of plastics; • Bans recycling of plastics containing hazardous chemicals; • Protects the public’s right to know about chemicals in plastics and information on plastic production and waste exports; • Charges plastic producers to finance the treaty; • Promotes safer sustainable materials for a non-toxic circular economy; and • Curbs toxic and climate pollutants

IPEN remains hopeful that countries will come together in 2024 to adopt a Plastics Treaty with strong, legally binding provisions focused on protecting human health and the environment through significant reductions in plastic production and controls on chemicals in plastics. Such an ambitious approach would be a critical step toward a toxics-free future for all.