Effective plastics treaty will require production, consumption data

Every year, about 400 million tonnes of plastic is produced worldwide, driving the plastic pollution crisis. The global use of plastics is estimated to increase from 464 million tonnes in 2020 to 884 million tonnes by 2050. This not only has serious implications for the environment, but also for health. 

The production of plastics derived from fossil fuels releases emissions that contribute to the climate crisis. Plastic waste also leaks harmful chemicals into the environment, which can lead to a range of health problems. 

The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) 5.2— was held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 5 to 14 August—aimed to develop an international legally binding instrument (ILBI) to tackle the harmful effects of plastic pollution. As the negotiations failed in this round and there will be clarity in the coming months on the next steps, it is time to assess how data can power decision-making in the negotiations and in the successful implementation of the future instrument. 

Plastic products are used across several sectors, including construction, manufacturing of electrical and electronic equipment, furniture, household products, medical devices, and packaging and transport. However, adequate data on the consumption of finished plastic products remains insufficient. Tracking the flow of plastics from consumption to disposal— crucial for effective monitoring, policy development, and accountability in addressing plastic pollution— is often outdated or lacking altogether, especially in developing nations.

The 1987 Montreal Protocol, which successfully tackled ozone depletion by strictly monitoring and maintaining public data and the 2015 Paris Agreement, which uses standardised data reporting to track progress towards achieving climate goals, are examples of how data is crucial in tackling plastic pollution. 

From the latest round of negotiations, it is evident that economic interests and not sustainability concerns are at the heart of decision making. There is evidence that every year between 19 million and 23 million tonnes of plastic waste leak into the environment.

Around 16,000 chemicals are used in plastics; 4,200 are categorized as chemicals of concern. Many lack safety data, and less than 1% are regulated. Many of the chemicals are derived from petrochemicals which are converted into polymers like polyethylene or polypropylene—the building blocks of plastic products. However, there is no country-specific data available for polymer production, as noted by a study published in the Journal of Ecology. Instead, countries were grouped together by region. For example, Belgium and Luxembourg were reported together by Plastics Europe; the U.S., Canada, and Mexico were combined under North America. And most of these datasets are incomplete. This data is important since plastics are often produced in one country and consumed by another. Data on trade is also inadequate because global reporting systems are organised in aggregated polymer categories.

Several Asian nations are taking steps to combat plastic pollution. India, a major plastic consumer, has established guidelines for using recycled plastic. China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand are either developing or implementing policies to encourage circular plastic design and recycled materials. Japan and Korea have well-established policies that encourage manufacturers to design products for easier recycling. 

To achieve this goal, identifying the chemicals of concern in products is important since chemicals leak into the environment, affecting human, animal and plant life. Data transparency will help manufacturers, consumers, waste sorters and recyclers make informed decisions, ensuring safer handling, proper recycling, and ultimately, a cleaner environment.

Other countries like Singapore have a mandatory packaging reporting framework to gather detailed information from companies on the packaging they introduce into the country. Similarly, the Maldives' Single-Use Plastic Phase-Out Plan (2020-23) established a national data collection mechanism to track packaging on imported goods. These initiatives highlight a regional trend of using data to inform policy and combat plastic waste.

Finally, availability and gathering of data on the impact that polymers and plastic products have on people and the planet is in nascent stages. For example, while there is a growing body of work on the health impacts of micro- and nano-plastics, science on linking polymer production to health and livelihoods has been sketchy.

In 2023, The Stockholm Resilience Centre proposed the concept of planetary boundaries as a framework that highlights the rising risks from human pressure on nine critical global processes that regulate the stability and resilience of the planet. Among the nine planetary boundaries-alongside issues like climate change and ocean acidification, “Novel Entities” has caused concerns. 

Defined as new substances, modified life forms, including previously unknown engineered materials, novel entities include chemical and plastic pollution. This boundary encompasses the introduction of synthetic chemicals, many of which have unknown impacts on the environment. Unlike other planetary boundaries, no quantitative limits have been established for plastic pollution since there is no pre-human background level or baseline that exists for it. IEEFA’s research shows that Asia (including China), already a leader in polymer trade, is projected to lead polymer production in the coming years.

Such data gaps make it difficult to pinpoint where interventions would be most effective and which countries require the most assistance in managing plastic pollution. The proposed ILBI outlines control mechanisms in its various articles of the December 2024 chair's text. For instance, Article 3 lists criteria for problematic plastic products that should stop being manufactured, imported, or exported. Article 5 focuses on plastic product design and aims to reduce leakage of harmful chemicals into the environment.

These control mechanisms cannot function without knowing the identity of the chemicals present in individual plastic items. Data transparency for identity of chemicals in manufactured materials/products is especially crucial to protecting human health and environment.

Article 6 includes a provision on presenting statistical data on the efforts taken by parties to manage production, consumption and trade of primary plastic polymers, and measures taken to achieve global targets. The focus of current national regional regulation is on plastic waste management. This provision on supply and the findings from the implementation of the article would provide the much-needed data to assess the magnitude of the problem from a production perspective, which will help in the designing and financing of interventions that address the root of the problem.

To meet its objective of eliminating plastic pollution, the proposed ILBI needs country-specific data on monomers, polymers, plastic production and consumption. Without this data, it will be difficult to identify which countries and regions need to take concrete steps to reduce their production and consumption of polymers and plastics.

To ensure traceability in chemicals of concern, the proposed ILBI also must include measures on chemicals used in plastic products and their impacts on human and environmental health. This will aid transparency and traceability of known hazardous chemicals present in individual plastic products, thus providing an opportunity for their elimination from the production process. Finally, the proposed ILBI should ensure collection of mandatory, time-bound and standardised comprehensive data.

This article was first published in Nikkei Asia.