A central question remains unresolved in the draft treaty: Is plastic pollution basically a waste management problem, or can it be solved only with a cap on production?
United Nations efforts to advance a global treaty on plastic pollution echo past multilateral agreements that tackled ozone layer depletion and acid rain.
Representatives of 175 countries voted to start developing a global treaty to reduce plastic waste. Treaties addressing mercury, long-range air pollution and ozone depletion offer some lessons.
In Australia alone, it’s estimated up to 8.9 billion butts are littered each year. A new report finds a mandatory product stewardship scheme can cut this by around half.
Litter hotspots were associated with socioeconomic factors such as a concentration of built infrastructure, less national wealth and the level of lighting at night.
Life-cycle assessments of food packaging often omit the impact and possible toxicity of plastics leaking into the environment. Excluding these factors gives plastics an unjustified advantage.