Towards a global treaty on plastic waste

Solving plastic pollution is not easy; alone, a country or a company, how can not work alone to solve this problem. There must be a large number of actors - including the largest plastic producers and polluters, zero waste plans, research laboratories, waste recycling agencies, etc. - to deal with this problem.

The first step is to establish a high-level forum to facilitate the discussion among these stakeholders in order to develop a cooperative strategy to reduce plastic pollution. This strategy can not be confined to voluntary action and cooperation programs, but rather to the development of legally binding international agreements based on governments' commitment to eliminate plastic pollution. The negotiations for the treaty could be launched at the UN Environment Conference in Nairobi in December this year.

Scientists have put forward specific proposals for a plastic pollution treaty. One of the authors of this paper presents a convention that follows the Paris climate agreement: a binding primary goal is combined with a voluntary national action plan and a flexible means of realization. The research team at the University of Wollongong, Australia, is inspired by the Montreal Protocol for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, suggesting that restrictions and prohibitions on new plastic products should be adopted.

Some may ask whether we should open another long, tortuous and tedious global negotiating treaty. Can not we find a way to solve the plastic problem?

The simple answer may be "no". For example, biodegradable plastics are only meaningful if the degradation rate is fast enough to avoid damage to wild animals. Even people looking forward to the discovery through a EPS recycling machine, such as the decomposition or digestion of plastic bacteria and moths, can only serve as a support.

The only way to really solve this problem is to cut off plastic waste. Technology may be helpful to provide more options for substitution and recycling; however, many of the world's zero-waste communities and cities indicate that this is not a must.

Plastic pollution is a distinctive feature of human discipline. After all, it is a global disaster that is entirely up to us - and we have the power to solve it.