This coot chick did not hatch in a healthy environment.
Photo: dpa/ Victoria Jones
At the end there was standing applause: The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) passed an agreement against plastic waste in Nairobi on Wednesday. A consensus had already emerged over the weekend in the preliminary negotiations for the draft “End Plastic Pollution – Towards a Legally Binding Agreement” led by Peru and Rwanda. “We made history today,” said Norway’s Environment Minister Espen Barth Eide, currently UNEA President.
According to the UNEA decision, a negotiating committee is to develop a legally binding convention by the end of 2024. The agreement looks at the entire life cycle of plastic products, right down to the microplastics in the environment and the seas. According to the UNEA, plastic makes up “at least 85 percent of all marine litter”. In this context, the resolution also emphasizes the importance of a sustainable circular economy. The main strategy to reduce production is recycling. But while, according to the OECD, 34.6 percent of plastic waste is recycled in Europe, the recycling rate worldwide is only nine percent.
One approach would be to make plastic more durable and thus usable for longer. Alternatives made from renewable raw materials could be different. But “bio-plastic” is problematic. The Heinrich Böll Foundation warns: “’Bio’ plastics distract from the actual solutions”. After all, these materials are not completely degradable either. Processes in which plastic is made from plant waste or algae are more promising.
Germany was one of the first countries to support the resolution. The German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke (Greens) spoke of a “milestone” at the conference in Nairobi. Together they worked hard to take an important, globally coordinated step against the plastic flood. It is the first time that the international community has agreed to take action against plastic waste, said Lemke.
Some African countries in particular are considered pioneers in the fight against plastic waste. For example, Rwanda banned plastic bags in 2008. However, national strategies were not enough, said Rwanda’s environment minister, Jeanne d’Arc Mujawamariya. That is why an international agreement is so important. Nevertheless: »It is the beginning of the end. But the real work begins now.«
The Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND) also rated the agreement as a “milestone” in the fight against the global flood of plastic. “Plastic flood, climate crisis, extinction of species and also social and economic injustices – they can only be countered holistically,” said Janine Korduan, BUND expert for circular economy.