Plastic Threat

M= than 400 million tons of plastic are produced globally each year, half of which is for single-use items. Nearly half, or 46 per cent, ends up in landfills, while 17 per cent is incinerated and 22 per cent is mismanaged and becomes rubbish. Plastic pollution has reached the most remote and inaccessible parts of our planet under constant and relentless assault from diverse sources. It has been found in Greenland’s ice cap, near the summit of Mount Everest and in the deepest depths of the western Pacific Ocean. Nature programmes have pressed the alarm bell over a human-made crisis that has become an environmental scourge posing a serious threat to human health. Yet global production of plastic is all set to cross one billion tons a year by 2060, after increasing by more than 200 times over the past 75 years.

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This is the sordid reality that has forced delegates from 184 countries to gather at the United Nations in Geneva to deliberate for 10 days, from 5 to 15 August, and negotiate a deal to combat plastic pollution. The chair of the meet, Luis Vayas Valdivieso, produced a draft text based on the few areas of convergence, in an attempt to find common ground. But it ended up infuriating virtually all the stakeholders. The battle against plastic has unfortunately turned into a war between the vested interests determined to protect their trade and those fighting for reducing production of plastic instead of merely managing recycling of waste.