Harriet Lamb, CEO WRAP, attended the Plastic Pollution Treaty Roundtable convened by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs The Rt Hon Steve Reed OBE MP
Today, ahead of the crucial fifth Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee in Busan, Republic of Korea, where 170 countries are locked in debate over the Global Plastics Treaty, I am pleased to add WRAP’s name to an important call to action on plastics pollution.
We join a list of major consumer and investment companies, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and as well as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in a united call for action and ambition in Busan.
We are addicted to plastics. Our passion for plastics exploded with its invention and has been fuelled for decades - without control - by the unique qualities and endless possibilities of this remarkable material. Nowhere more so than in packaging.
Today, the world produces more than 141 million tonnes of plastic packaging every year. Too much ends up in landfills, incinerators or littering the environment. Unless we act, we will be disposing of an estimated 30 million tonnes of plastic into the environment every single year, by 2040.
And now we are all seeing in full the tragic impacts of our unchecked dependence on this most pervasive pollutant with plastics in the air, water, earth, nature and even our bloodstreams.
Which is why INC5 is such a crucial step in developing a Global Treaty to help us kick our plastic habit.
The Treaty must agree high ambition and actionable strategies that businesses and governments will follow – and which can be monitored.
We know companies and governments can drive change. At WRAP we are keen supporters of voluntary action, running Plastic Pacts with businesses in the UK and across 19 countries which introduce solutions and encourage the innovators and early adopters. Already, in the first four years of the Plastic Pacts Network, business members have achieved impressive reductions in plastics use – preventing the use of 2.2 million tonnes of virgin plastics by 2022.
Billions of problematic or unnecessary plastic items have been eliminated completely by those Pact members, while 850,000 tonnes of plastic packaging has been redesigned to be reusable, recyclable or compostable – a 23% increase.
Plastic Pact members increased the amount of plastic recycled into new packaging by 44% and helped to enable an additional 463,000 tonnes to be recycled. Actions helping to keep oil in the ground, where it belongs.
The Pacts have also helped governments to design and roll out regulations, as well as providing a forum for collaboration for businesses to find solutions. But voluntary measures alone are not enough. They are a start, not an end. They do not come near the scale of effort required nor have the participation of anywhere near the numbers who must act.
But they have marked out a path that we can follow with binding regulation.
The time for legislation to take over is now. Controlling plastics pollution, banning some items and ensuring a circular economy in plastics needs global regulation. At WRAP, we support the need for clear global standards, rooted in evidence, and harmonised regulation. So do a growing roster of businesses who agree that the Treaty needs an ambitious starting point, including core provisions to restrict or phase out problematic and avoidable plastic products and address concerns about chemicals.
Consensus agrees that rules to improve product design are necessary and to agree common principles for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation that makes producers responsible for the entire life cycle of their products. From design to end-of-life and including waste collection and recycling - the polluter pays principle. More and more companies want such regulation – to push forward the laggards, end unfair competition, and help shift the markets.
Such regulatory steps forward need to be defined through a common global approach. So, calls are growing in volume too for the right structures to be put in place with a strong mandate for a governing body able to further strengthen measures to be implemented under the treaty over time.
Action must focus particularly on finance to support countries in the global south that are most immediately impacted by the worsening plastic problem, so they can invest in the infrastructure, skills and solutions of the future.
Along with Governments and NGOs, increasing numbers of businesses, large and small – local and international - are calling on governments to deliver a high ambition treaty with global binding rules.
I urge those serious in their ambitions to move towards a circular economy for plastics to add their name to this united call for action.
Read the Plastic pollution treaty statement on the Gov.uk website