Promoting Responsible Trade in Consumer Plastics to Support the Development of a Circular Plastics Economy
“Plastics are fossil fuels in another form & pose a serious threat to human rights, the climate & biodiversity …. I call on countries to look beyond waste and turn off the tap on plastic.” Footnote #1 content: António Guterres, @antonioguterres, X (Dec. 1, 2022, 5:45 PM), https://x.com/antonioguterres/ status/1598667368296751109.
–António Guterres
This Note aims to explore trade policy options that support plastics circularity by shifting economic incentives away from the unsustainable extraction of virgin fossil fuels for primary plastics production towards efficient resource use that recaptures the lost economic value inherent in plastic waste. This Note will also highlight challenges and opportunities faced by the United States, which holds enormous purchasing power as the top importer of intermediate and final manufactured plastics products, synthetic textiles, and plastics packaging. Footnote #2 content: Diana Barrowclough (Senior Economist, Division on Globalisation and Development Strategies, UNCTAD) et al., Global Trade in Plastics: Insights From the First Life-Cycle Trade Database, at 18, UNCTAD/SER.RP/2020/12 (Dec. 2020), https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/ ser-rp-2020d12_en.pdf. The United States is also a top two exporter of plastic waste. Footnote #3 content: Id. at 17. As such, the United States is in a uniquely powerful position to reverse the plastics pollution crisis and lead international markets toward a net-zero plastics economy.
Tremendous efforts are currently underway at the international policy level to address the serious environmental and humanitarian threat that plastics pose. This Note aims to analyze some of these efforts to identify best practices and inform this trade policy exploration. The Paris Agreement set an ambitious goal to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. The trajectory of the plastics sector will play a materially significant role in whether this global target is achieved. The following three high-level targets, inspired by current international policy efforts, may serve as useful anchors to guide the development of specific, legally binding multilateral provisions across the full lifecycle of plastics: (1) commit to recycled polymers targets of at least 25% of production by 2030; (2) end plastics pollution by 2040; and (3) decarbonize the plastics sector to reach net zero by 2045.
This Note begins by identifying key drivers of the current plastics pollution crisis and the obstacles that have thwarted previous efforts towards circularity. First and foremost, plastics circularity requires policy change that economically disincentivizes single-use and virgin plastics products, incentivizes reuse and high-value non-toxic materials, and expands the scope and scale of advanced plastics recycling. Carefully crafted trade policy that takes a whole systems approach to creating the right economic incentives for circularity across the plastics lifecycle is critical to scaling existing technology solutions and achieving an end to plastics pollution.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) require concerted efforts to address the triple planetary crises of: (1) climate change; (2) nature and biodiversity loss; and (3) pollution and waste. Footnote #4 content: Inger Andersen, A Leap Forward for Environmental Action, U.N. ENV’T PROGRAMME (Mar. 2, 2022), https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/speech/leap-forward-environmental-action. The plastics sector contributes to each of these crises and must shift its trajectory to become part of a low-carbon circular economy. Through the right market incentives and the liberalization of existing technological advancements in recycling, bioplastics, and plastics manufacturing powered by renewable energy, the plastics sector can decarbonize and achieve net zero by 2045. Biodiversity loss and pollution can both be addressed while simultaneously accelerating decarbonization efforts through intelligent product design policy standards. Product design standards developed by a policy panel that include waste management industry specialists, as well as scientists, can significantly improve recycling rates, eliminate toxins from the environment, and end plastics pollution.
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