Plastic pollution | A global treaty could “change everything”

184 countries gathered Tuesday in Geneva under the aegis of the UN to try, again, to lead to the first world treaty on plastic pollution. An expert interviewed by The press Explain how such a treaty could accelerate things in the fight against this “scourge”.

Why do we want to lead to such a treaty?

Plastic pollution is a problem that raises more and more concerns – especially in recent years ¹.

“Plastic pollution damages ecosystems, pollutes our oceans and our rivers, threatens biodiversity, affects human health and unfairly weighs on the most vulnerable. The urgency is real, the evidence is clear and the responsibility is based on us, ”launched the Ecuadorian diplomat Luis Vayas Valdivieso, who chairs the debates of the negotiation committee, at the opening.

Plastic pollution is a “serious, increasing and underestimated danger” for health, which costs the world at least $ 1500 billion a year, experts in the journal medical The Lancet.

What is blocking, in negotiations?

The negotiations should have ended last December in Busan, South Korea, during the fifth and (supposedly) the latest cycle of negotiations on the issue. But this summit finally ended in a failure, a group of oil producing countries that have blocked any progress of the discussions.

The fifth cycle of negotiations therefore resumed Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland, under the name of “CIN-5.2”.

“I really hope this time, it will be the last. It would be really sad that we do not lead to an agreement, ”says Anne-Marie Asselin. She was invited to participate in 4^e Summit on the subject, which took place in Ottawa, from April 23 to 29, 2024, as the founder of the Blue Organization. This organization focuses in particular to pick up and identify plastic waste that pollutes watercourses and oceans in eastern Canada, to encourage policies to take action in order to stem the problem.

In December, negotiations were crystallized around a thorny question: should plastic be reduced to its source, limiting the production of new plastics, or rather concentrating its efforts at the end of the chain, on recycling and treatment of waste?

But according to Anne-Marie ASSELIN, the question should not be asked so binary. “The right answer is somewhere between the two,” she said.

“We generate a huge variety of plastics and in quantities far too large for the market [du recyclage]. So we must both increase the lifespan of materials and reduce production to the source. »»

Where is Canada located in all of this?

In December, the Federal Minister of the Environment Steven Guilbeault, had expressed his disappointment after the failure of the negotiations. Canada is one of the countries that wish to reduce to the source and tackle depollution and recycling.

Canadians are still among the largest waste producers on the planet, said M^me Asselin. “If we ratify this treaty, it shows the will of Canada to improve, because we are really not very good in there. »»

According to figures advanced by Statistics Canada, 7.1 million tonnes of plastics were manufactured for consumption in 2021. Almost 5 million tonnes finished in waste – which corresponded to 130 kilograms per capita. The overwhelming majority of this plastic waste has been recovered (99.2 %), but less than 10 % have been recycled.

“We are as an expert in recovery, but the recyclability rate is still very low,” deplores Anne-Marie Asselin.

She also hopes that the treaty will integrate a clause prohibiting Western countries from sending their plastic waste abroad to claim to do their part.

What form could such a treaty take?

A treatise on plastic pollution could go far beyond the symbol and take different forms, argues Anne-Marie ASSELIN. “It would be like a code of conduct to which countries must submit,” she said, like the Paris climate agreement.

A limit of plastic production could for example be fixed; And if some countries exceed it, they will have to pay a tax that would go to a fund to fight plastic pollution.

It could also be a question of specifically limiting single -use plastic. “This would stimulate other solutions, to return to the instructions for example,” she says.

In all cases, “this would recognize plastic pollution as a scourge and take action accordingly,” she sums up.

What would it change for us?

Over the years, the various orders of government have started to act for the fight against plastic pollution.

We can for example think of the “zero plastic zero waste by 2030” objective of the federal government, the progressive expansion of the instructions in Quebec, the prohibition of single -use plastic articles in Montreal in 2023, or various initiatives to promote the circular economy on a more local scale.

Despite everything, the impact of plastic remains “very present”, including in Quebec, testifies Anne-Marie Asselin. She herself regularly organizes banks of banks on the banks of the St. Lawrence and is always frightened by the quantity of plastic waste that she finds there, despite the relatively small size of the Quebec population.

But if the UN reaches an agreement, it could “change everything”, since the impetus would come “from above”, she explains.

“With a global treaty, we would accelerate things at high speed. And this high speed speed is exactly what science indicates and what we see on the field: we have to take action, and quickly. »»

With the France-Presse agency

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