The sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly is coming to an end, and plastic recycling is attracting attention again

Interface News Reporter |

Interface News Editor |

The sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) was held at the headquarters of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya, from 26 February to 1 March 2024.Official informationThe meeting will focus on how multilateralism can help address the triple global crises of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste, he said.

Plastic pollution has been recognized as a looming global crisis. Earlier, in March 2022, a milestone at the second session of the fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UN Environment Assembly) was the agreement of delegates to reach a legally binding global agreement in 2024 to end plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. The resolution will address the entire life cycle of plastics, including their production, design and disposal.

Espen Barth Eide, President of the Fifth UN Environment Assembly and Minister of Climate and Environment of Norway, said: "Plastic pollution has become an epidemic. With today's resolution, we are officially on the path to healing. Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UN Environment and UN Under-Secretary-General, said this will be the most important international multilateral environmental agreement after the Paris Agreement.

To inform and support this international agreement, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released a report on 16 May 2023Turn off the taps: How the world can end plastic pollution and create a circular economy。 Reuse refers to the shift from a "disposable economy" to a "reuse society" in which it makes more economic sense to reuse and refill products than to throw them away. As a result, the report proposes a system change to address the causes of plastic pollution, starting with reducing problematic and unnecessary plastic use, and then redesigning systems, products and their packaging, and combining these with a market shift to plastic circularity.

Against this backdrop, the sixth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in 2024 will discuss more specific issues, and the recovery and recycling of plastic waste will continue to be included in the category of "fighting plastic pollution". According to environmental news outlet Down To Earth on February 27ReportedSpeaking at a side event on the first day of UNEA-6, panelists said that the reuse of plastics should be a central component of this international agreement.

The packaging industry is the world's largest producer of single-use plastic waste, with around 36% of plastic products being used for packaging. Rsammi Parmentier, founding director of the Varda Group, who hosted the event, said that the reuse system could reduce the production of plastic packaging by 90% and significantly reduce CO2 emissions compared to single-use options. Ambassador Maria Alejandra Guerra, Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations Environment Programme, said that less than 10% of plastic waste is currently recycled. She said the food and beverage industry bears a lot of responsibility for the problem of plastic pollution.

At the same time, boosting confidence in investment in the reuse sector has become a key issue. Speakers on behalf of the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Rwanda Environment Authority (REMA) pointed to the role of plastics in the circular economy. Nicola Pochettino, head of environment and natural resources at the European Investment Bank, said the challenges of plastics management must be seen as part of a broader challenge to developing a circular economy. Pochettino believes that it is necessary to define what circularity is and how to measure it, in order to develop a business model that makes circularity work.

According to the United Nations Environment ProgrammedataToday, plastics is a global industry worth more than $500 billion. Global annual production of plastic and plastic waste doubled in 2019 compared to 2000 (from 234 million tonnes to 430 million tonnes), up from 2 million tonnes in 1950. If not regulated at the international level, this number is expected to nearly triple by 2060 compared to 2019.

Lightweight, durable, and inexpensive, plastics make a positive contribution to society in many ways. However, it also has a downside: the way people produce, use, and dispose of plastic is polluting ecosystems, putting human and animal health at risk, and destabilizing the climate. Overall, 46% of plastic waste ends up in landfills, while 22% of plastic waste is mismanaged and becomes waste. In addition to the pollution problem, plastic also exacerbates the climate crisis, according to the United NationsdataIn 2019, plastics produced 1.8 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 3.4% of the global total.