For over a decade, the town of Ecaussines in Belgium has been facing the destructive impacts of pollution from Plastic Pellets also known as nurdles, spilled by the petrochemical complex present in the area.
160,000 tons of pellets are dumped into the environment every year in Europe Last March, Surfrider Foundation Europe and the Rethink Plastic alliance decided to invite decision makers to witness this pollution with their own eyes.
Once again, the industries are proving that the voluntary Operation Clean Sweep initiative is not working to reduce plastic pellet pollution – as shown in other cases such as Tarragona.
Overall production of packaging and packaging waste has steadily grown over the past 20 years. In 2018 a record high of 174 kg of packaging waste per person was reached in Europe. Between 2009 and 2019, paper & cardboard were the main type of packaging waste per weight (32.2 million tons in 2019), ahead of plastic and glass (15.4 and 15.2 million tonnes, respectively, in 2019).
Currently, most packaging in Europe is:
Single-use: with enormous environmental impacts from production down to waste, including resource extraction; use of raw materials; land, energy, and water use; and CO2 emissions. As levels for single-use packaging continue to rise, current waste management systems cannot cope.
Warming our planet: Research shows that across their lifespan, plastics account for 3.8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. That’s almost double the emissions of the aviation sector. In order to manufacture just one kilogram of plastic, 3.5 kg of CO2 are emitted into the atmosphere. And incineration of one particular type of plastic packaging (40% of plastic demand) waste amounted to 16 million metric tons of CO2 in 2015. In 2019, the global production and incineration of plastic (including plastic packaging) emitted more than 850 million metric tons of greenhouse gases — equal to the emissions from 189 five-hundred megawatt coal power plants.
Putting our health at risk: In Europe alone, over 8,000 chemicals can potentially be used in food packaging, tableware, and other food contact materials, with many of these chemicals linked to cancer, harm reproduction, and hormone disruption. More about chemicals in food contact materials can be found in these infographics.
Wasting our food: 37% of all food sold in the EU is wrapped in plastic packaging. Packaging, which should protect food and increase its shelf life, is often found to be a driver of food waste. Recent researchhas shown that wrapping fresh products in plastic packaging does not make them last longer, but rather adds to pollution and food waste. The research concluded that when food products were sold loose, and the best-before dates removed, it could save more than 10,300 tonnes of plastic and about 100,000 tonnes of food from being wasted each year – the equivalent of 14 million shopping baskets of food. Packaging often forces people to buy more than they need, while oversized packaging and packaging items that are difficult to empty also lead to the waste of perfectly edible food.
Non-recyclable and not recycled: the overwhelming majority of packaging doesn’t get recycled. Most statistics available on the recyclability of packaging are inaccurate, as the current waste management scenarios do not reflect the real conditions of the sector. Just because a product is recyclable does not mean it will be collected, recycled and turned into new materials and products. Most often, waste management infrastructures lack the functionality to deal with different formats of packaging . The greater the mix of materials within the packaging, the lower the overall quality the recycled material becomes. Currently, most single-use packaging placed in the EU market is made out of complex materials; involving different materials or layers, as well as many different types that should not be recycled together. The presence of many chemicals in packaging along with food leftovers also hampers recycling. Furthermore, current recycling statistics do not take into account the inappropriate disposal.
Traded as waste sent to countries outside Europe: where it is usually burnt, landfilled, or leaked in the environment. The European Union relies heavily on international trade for its overgeneration of plastic and packaging waste. In 2019, the EU exported a monthly average of 150,000 tonnes of plastic waste beyond its borders. In 2017, plastic packaging accounted for 75% of the plastic waste exported (by weight). Since most single-use packaging are not recyclable, they are exported “for recycling” to third countries – mainly to countries in the Global South with significantly more limited waste management infrastructures. In fact, a third of the plastic packaging destined for recycling is shipped outside of EU territory, where control over whether the recycling process actually happens (or happens under the right conditions) cannot be monitored.
Packaging at the core of the solution
As a principle, packaging that cannot be safely used, reused and recycled at the end of its life should not be produced or placed in the market in the first place. The solution to stop this packaging pollution chain is logical: the less packaging we produce, use, and discard, and the less materials we extract, the better for our environment and society. This is why it is crucial to think upstream: rethinking and redesigning packaging so that these products are toxic-free, circular by design, and contribute to regenerating ecosystems instead of polluting them.
Reducing and redesigning packaging is key to solving most of the problems above. By eliminating packaging that we don’t need, we can save resources, reduce emissions, and minimise waste. A good example is the French Circular Economy Law which seeks to reduce single-use plastic packaging and to develop alternatives such as bulk or reusable packaging. As of 1 January 2022, plastic packaging is banned for most fruits and vegetables in France.
Rethinking the purpose of packaging itself helps to not only prevent packaging waste, but also to prevent food waste as consumers can buy exactly what they actually want to consume – not more, not less! Promoting local and short supply chains, such as farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture schemes, and basket delivery systems have great potential to connect consumers to the production of food in ways that can help to reduce food and packaging waste.
Reusable packaging systems are a crucial element to this equation. The more times a product can be used, the lower its negative environmental impact, regardless of its material. A reusable glass bottle has 85% less emissions than its single-use counterpart; 70% less emissions than a single-use PET bottle; and also 57% less emissions than a single-use aluminium can. Setting up well-managedpool systems for washing and redistribution of reusable packaging, is a key instrument to make efficient and effective reuse systems work.
Specifically on safe, toxic-free packaging, EU legislation is required to phase out the most hazardous chemicals and ensure packaging is safe for use, reuse and recycling. Manufacturers can already introduce innovative solutions and/or by scaling up existing safer solutions for packaging (e.g. avoiding toxic glues and inks, using glass or metal containers for reusable options).
Sustainable packaging systems and take-back systems such as deposit return schemes (DRS) enable the return of packaging to the system to be preferably reused, or recycled; and it should be among the high-priority solutions and measures to achieve true circularity for packaging.
By redesigning packaging with circularity in mind, it is possible to reduce uses of hazardous chemicals; reduce food waste; and get rid of 75% of the waste that is currently being exported, thus mitigating climate change impact through the reduction of carbon footprints. It will also allow us to ensure that this packaging is primarily reused and effectively recycled in Europe at the end of its life.
With the right support and conditions, reuse can thrive in Europe, and lead to a much needed effective reduction in plastic use and pollution while supporting a healthy environment and society.
Reuse is a system in which products and packaging accomplish multiple trips or rotations within their life span, by being returned to a producer and re-used for the same purpose in which they were originally conceived, as opposed to single-use products and packaging designed to be disposed of after one use. Successful reuse systems require infrastructures like refill stations, collection points, storage, cleaning facilities and transport to ensure the packaging or product can go back to the producer for reuse or refill. Systems like this have existed before, and they can exist again. Remember the milk man?
That’s why the Rethink Plastic alliance and #breakfreefromplastic movement are calling on EU decision makers to tackle the significant human health and environmental impacts caused bysingle-use plastics production and waste by supportingreuse and signing the We Choose Reuse commitment!
We need everyone on board for the reuse revolution ! The support of EU decision-makers is particularly critical and timely. The EU is currently designing policies that have the potential to make reuse the new normal in the EU, notably the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive and the EU Taxonomy on sustainable finance.
For inspiration on how to engage decision-makers, our #breakfreefromplastic Slovenian member Ekologi brez meja offers their effective engagement process, which gained support from three Slovenian MEPs for reuse – Irena Joveva, Milan Brglez and Franc Bogovič.
“Gaining support for #WeChooseReuse from almost half of the Slovenian representation in the European Parliament, who represent from different political backgrounds, is a great forecast for reuse in the EU.” shares Public Relations President at Ekologi brez meja Katja Sreš. “We have used the prepared materialsby the #WeChooseReuse campaign team and distributed them among all our MEPs with a given deadline for response. “The teams of Irena Joveva, Milan Brglez and Franc Bogovič responded within minutes and once again lent their voice to one of our causes. I am positive if we would be even more persistent and would send out reminders to the others, we would also get on board with the other five members. Nevertheless, this will be our mission in the next decision-makers call to action.”
There is an appetite for reuse within and beyond the European Union. By actively engaging with MEPs and using the #WeChooseReuse campaign to illustrate the benefits of reusable systems, EBM have set an inspiring example of what can be achieved through effective engagement.
European Parliament, 11 May 12:00 – 14:00 (hybrid event)
What’s the impact of EU plastic waste trade and how can the EU end its damaging practices and achieve a circular economy?
As all eyes are on the revision of the Waste Shipment Regulation, the Rethink Plastic alliance invites you to the European Parliament to this crucial hybrid event calling on the EU to implement a full ban on EU plastic waste exports.
Agenda
12.00- 12.30: Light lunch provided 12.30 – 12.35: Welcome, introductory remarks from MEP Cyrus Engerer 12.35 – 12.45: Screening extract of documentary The Recycling Myth on illegal exports to Turkey 12.45 – 13.30: Speeches from:
Krista Shennum, Fellow, Human Rights Watch
Yuyun Ismawati, Founder of the Indonesian NGO Nexus 3 Foundation, Goldman Environmental Prize Winner 2009
Sedat Gündoğdu, Associate Professor, Cukurova University
Emmanuel Katrakis, Secretary General, EuRIC
Lauren Weir, Ocean Campaigner, Environmental Investigation Agency and the Rethink Plastic alliance
13:30 – 13:50: Q&A with the participants, moderated by the Rethink Plastic alliance 13:50 – 14:00 Closing remarks by MEP Cyrus Engerer
You can register here by 5 May. You can join the event online here.
The following text is courtesy of the Center for International Environmental Law. For more information, see their policy briefing.
Plastic is a growing crisis for the environment, human health, human rights, biodiversity, and the climate — actions to address it are needed NOW at the global level.
Momentum is rising. Civil society groups, scientists & academics, a majority of UN Member States, and a wide variety of business and industry voices are now calling for the negotiation of a strong new international agreement to address the plastics crisis.
The fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA5.2) — happening from February 28th to March 4th, 2022 in Nairobi, Kenya — is the time to build on this momentum. Governments must agree to mandate an ambitious new global agreement, with specific legally-binding provisions and obligations to prevent and remediate pollution from plastic and its toxic impacts.
Civil society groups are joining forces to demand such an instrument and call for the inclusion of measures along the entire life cycle of plastics, from the extraction of feedstocks and production to transport, use, disposal, and remediation. This process must be predicated on a just and robust system for ensuring stakeholder participation and meaningful implementation at all levels under a human rights-based approach.
Levels of plastic production, consumption and use are hugely damaging. Reuse measures will enable their reduction, writes Lauren Weir, Ocean Campaigner at the Environmental Investigation Agency.
The #WeChooseReuse campaign, the objective being to replace single-use plastic with reusable systems and products, has many different facets. Whether that be consumer choice at the individual level, different business refill systems and deposit return schemes to policy facilitating this transition at scale. But all amount to one objective: the clear reason for this campaign being that levels of plastic production, consumption and use are hugely damaging, and these measures will enable their reduction.
In tandem we are also calling on Europe to responsibly manage the treatment of its plastic waste, including through banning shipment of extra-EU plastic waste exports[1] – an irresponsible practice under the guise of recycling that in fact creates immeasurable harm to society, health and the environment[2]. This is felt particularly in countries in the Global South, who are the major recipients of this EU waste destined for “recycling”, despite having infrastructure that is overwhelmed resulting in European plastic waste that should be recycled being incinerated, landfilled or illegally dumped.
“Waste colonialism is an environmental justice issue, Europe is dumping its plastic waste onto others whilst touting itself as an environmental leader.”
A recent Greenpeace investigation helped document this occurring at scale in Turkey, finding UK plastic waste[3] and German plastic waste[4] destined for recycling illegally dumped. In 2020 alone they legally exported 210,000 and 136,000 tonnes of plastic waste to Turkey respectively. To better comprehend the scale of the issue, in combination, Europe sends approximately 241 truckloads of plastic waste to Turkey per day[5]. A country where an OECD Environmental Performance Review has reported it sends 90% of its waste to landfill[6].
We have identified a solution in the form of 5 key recommendations:
– Ban on plastic waste exports outside of the European Union – Fully implement the Basel Convention within Europe to increase transparency and allow for prior informed consent – Establish a clear distinction between mechanical recycling and any other kind of recovery for treatment operations, like chemical recycling, to in turn apply the waste hierarchy – Set a European-wide threshold for waste contamination of 0.5% to improve the quality of the recyclate – Ensure publicly accessible access to waste trade data to facilitate monitoring, enforcement and accountability
But how are our #WeChooseReuse campaign and our plastic waste recommendations[7] interlinked? And how will eliminating plastic waste exports facilitate reuse systems and lead to plastic reduction?
If Europe were to take full responsibility of its plastic waste treatment it will reduce the risk of plastic waste leakage[8], enhance circularity, and operate within Europe’s finite recycling sector[9] – facilitating reduction and subsequently paving the way for reuse.
Figure 1 – Exports and shipments, like waste to energy recovery, landfill and incineration, are an externality to a circular economy. Source: https://www.eca.europa.eu/Lists/ECADocuments/RW20_04/RW_Plastic_waste_EN.pdf
Simply put, the export of extra-EU plastic waste is a result of Europe’s overconsumption of plastic and single-use economy. Therefore, Europe needs to export its plastic waste as it fails to handle the majority of it in an environmentally sound manner. For instance:
Energy recovery is the most common method of treating European plastic waste, followed by landfill. Only approximately 30% of all the generated plastic waste is collected for recycling and recycling rates by country vary a lot[10].
In 2018 the EU exported 6.5% of all plastic waste collected, the equivalent of 20.2% of all plastic waste sent to recycling facilities[11].
Between 2012 – 2017 approximately 30% of all plastic packaging waste destined for recycling was exported[12]., the largest volume of plastic product put on the European market that is also principally single-use[13].
For context, in 2019 this amounted to the EU exporting a monthly average of 150,000 tonnes of plastic waste[14] and not all of this waste is actually being recycled.
The European Parliament states that the production and incineration of plastic emits about 400 million tonnes of CO2 globally per annum, a part of which could be avoided through better recycling but principally reduction[15].
Dumping European plastic waste in the form of exports is convenient[16], cheaper and a form of greenwashing[17], as this practice is externalising many costs that Europe is responsible for[18]. Europe uses these exports to then state it’s achieving its often over-estimated recycling objectives[19]. Despite this, it seems the EU target of 50% of all plastic packaging should be recycled by 2025 will still not be met[20].
This is further facilitated by the illegal shipments of plastic waste[21]. The illegal EU waste trade annual revenue ranges between 4 and 15 billion euros (midpoint figure of 9.5 billion)[22]. The illegal shipment of plastic waste, end-of-life vehicles and e-waste are expected to increase[23]. Least transboundary movement of waste facilitates transparency and reduces the risk of illegal shipments[24].
Europe has been able to continue consuming high levels of (principally single use) plastic because it knows it can export the problem of its treatment elsewhere, either through currently legal channels or unaccounted illegal shipments. By stopping exports, and accounting for European recycling targets, current recycling capacity and the Commission’s acknowledgement of the need of incineration moratoriums[25], Europe is in turn acknowledging the need for and would need to enact a further absolute reduction in plastic consumption. Consequently, by maintaining waste produced, linearity of production to disposal would be somewhat halted, facilitating circularity.
Operations and consumption of products that currently rely on plastic, including in the form of single-use packaging, would continue. In turn providing the opportunity and demand for reuse and refill to be adopted at scale – the only viable replacement to our current throwaway culture. The subsequent necessity to find an alternative to single use reduces the risk of investing in new reuse/ refill systems which is not without lucrative market opportunities[26].
Like many policy areas, methods and measures are dependent and overlapping. Concurring measures on limiting incineration, reducing the contamination of plastic waste so intra-EU waste trade has better quality recyclate, ensuring eco-design and being wary of the widespread uptake of chemical recycling[27] and biodegradable/ compostable plastics would facilitate success.
Crucially, it is important to note, that neither the methods nor logic outlined above is novel. Bans are common policy measures to heighten the development of a commodity[28] or used to ensure environmental protection[29]. Europe is fully aware of its waste problem and currently has the opportunity to heighten responsible management.[30] In fact, it has already enacted a partial plastic waste trade ban exceeding current international regulations – having banned the export of unsorted plastic waste to non-OECD countries at the beginning of 2021[31].
It must also be noted that a European plastic waste ban would not be occurring in isolation. A number of countries who have historically been receiving this plastic waste have in turn placed import bans themselves as they acknowledge the damage these shipments bring[32]. This was kick-started in 2018 when China[33], as the principle importer of other countries’ plastic waste, put in place an importing ban leaving Europe scrambling to find other destinations for these shipments. The most recent country to place restrictions being Turkey[34].
The ban of extra-EU plastic waste is simply Europe taking an additional step, getting us closer to the tipping point from single-use plastic to reuse existence.
[9] Recycling is necessary but should not be the primary objective, and subsequently drastically enhancing Europe’s recycling ability is a false solution. Plastic can only be recycled a very few number of times (sometimes only once or twice – recyclability rate/ downgrading ultimately depends on plastic type, level of contamination, the nature of the product it is recycled into). Regardless. Polymer breakdown is countered by mixing with virgin plastics. Source: https://www.foodpackagingforum.org/fpf-2016/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/FPF_Dossier08_Plastic-recycling.pdf.
[16] “Half of the plastic collected for recycling is exported to be treated in countries outside the EU. Reasons for the exportation include the lack of capacity, technology or financial resources to treat the waste locally. Previously, a significant share of the exported plastic waste was shipped to China, but with the country’s recent ban on plastic waste imports, it is increasingly urgent to find other solutions.” – European Parliament. Source: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/headlines/society/20181212STO21610/plastic-waste-and-recycling-in-the-eu-facts-and-figures
[17] “EU operators must receive documentation attesting that the treatment (including recycling) of plastic packaging waste in a third country is done under broadly equivalent standards to those in the EU. Nevertheless, the European Environment Agency notes that treatment in non-EU countries often causes higher environmental pressure in terms of pollution, CO2 emissions and plastic leakage into the environment, than treatment or recycling in the EU. Verification of compliance with EU plastic waste treatment standards in third countries is often insufficient to ensure respect of EU standards. Member State national authorities have no control powers in third countries and extended producer responsibility organisations, which are responsible for plastic packaging waste management, rarely perform on-the-spot checks. This translates into a low assurance relating to recycling outside the EU and significant risk of illegal activities”. Source: https://www.eca.europa.eu/Lists/ECADocuments/RW20_04/RW_Plastic_waste_EN.pdf
[18] Labour rights, poor working conditions, toxicity and leaching through recycling, leakage, residuals, burning dumping and landfill, chemical and microplastic pollution, exacerbating social inequalities to name a few.
[30] Currently Europe is revising a host of waste legislation, including the Batteries Regulation, Waste Framework Directive, RoHS Directive, WEEE Directive, ELV Directive, Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, Waste Shipment Regulation, POPs Regulation (waste annexes)
In our series of virtual panels on Writing the New Story of Plastic, we spoke of the fact that solutions to our plastic crisis have focused for too long on managing end-of-life — where our plastics end up and how we dispose of them once they’re considered waste — and the importance of considering the entire lifecycle of plastic. A significant contributor to our climate crisis and plastic pollution crisis is the very beginning of this lifecycle: the upstream production of plastic.
Plastics are petrol
The creation of plastic begins with the extraction and processing of fossil fuels, practices responsible for significant greenhouse gas emissions including methane, whose global warming potential is at least 86 times that of CO2 over a 20-year period. While over 99% of plastics are produced from chemicals derived from fossil fuels, the association between fossil fuel extraction and plastic production has slipped from public attention, in large part because the climate impacts of greenhouse gas emissions are more difficult to grasp and less visceral than images of plastic litter flooding our oceans and killing marine wildlife. Yet not only does virtually all plastic come from fossil fuels, the petrochemical industry and the plastics industry are vertically integrated, meaning their prosperity relies on each other. This relationship describes a plastic industrial complex that has flown under the radar of EU policy for too long.
Today, plastics account for 60% of oil demand. As the world relies less on oil and gas and prices for these materials plummet, the petrochemical industry—the largest consumer of oil and gas globally—is hedging its bets on plastics, with plans to double production capacity in the next 20 years. Yet public pressure on plastics is unlikely to yield the kind of demand to match the industry’s intended supply. In addition to the ecological problem of the upstream of plastic production, this gap has the potential to create an even greater economic problem than the one we already face—resulting from the crucial blind spot EU policy and legislation has on this sector, despite the EU’s plan to decarbonise its economy through policy like the European Green Deal.
An industry polluting with impunity
As things stand, plastics impose a massive untaxed externality on society. “Externalities are a real cost, and people pay for them with their lives and with their livelihoods,” says panelist Kingsmill Bond, Energy Strategist at Carbon Tracker. The problem is that the ones paying these costs are not the ones pocketing the cash. Carbon Tracker’s recent report reveals that plastics cost taxpayers 1,000 USD per tonne produced, which amounts to 350 billion dollars of taxpayer money a year. While the principle that polluters should pay these externalities is present in European law, this principle is far from respected, particularly when it comes to industrial decarbonisation. Industries like the petrochemical industry have not reduced their emissions at all since 2012, despite the EU’s climate goals and our ongoing climate crisis.
Even with the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) in place, the EU’s key tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, more than 90% of all the carbon pollution from these sectors has no price tag. The massive handout of free emissions allowances under the ETS—which represents 6.3 billion tons of CO2 over the next ten years—is “a hidden scandal of European climate policy making,” says panelist Sam Van Den Plas of Carbon Market Watch. It requires immediate attention. This “free” handout of carbon emissions represents 165 billion euros over the next ten years, a cost that will fall to European citizens instead of the industries who profit as a result of their production.
Solutions and EU policy
Internalising these externalities—making producers pay for the cost of their pollution—seems like a simple enough solution. Yet the reason the petrochemical industry has gotten away with such shocking impunity is because they’ve incorrectly convinced policy makers that putting a carbon price on their pollution will drive industry outside of Europe and only further pollute elsewhere. Another straight-forward seeming solution is to curtail the demand for plastics, which will curtail the demand for oil and phase out its extraction and processing. While our society is waking up to the negative effects of plastics, and industries across the board are turning away from them in their supply chain, the plastic industrial complex is wilfully blind to this trajectory. With plans to flood the market in oversupply, the discrepancy between their planned and likely growth is projected to create 400 billion dollars in stranded assets. If the EU doesn’t wake up to the flaws in their legislation and the hidden CO2 costs of plastics stemming from upstream production, there is a real risk that public funding will go towards saving this industry rather than towards implementing sound strategies.
With the Green Deal, the goal of Carbon Neutrality and the increase of emissions target to at least 55% reduction by 2030, the European Commission is taking steps in the right direction, but these are nowhere near sufficient. Today, the EU has many good strategies in place, but these strategies have yet to be enacted through equally good legislation. For panelist Martin Hojsik, member of the European Parliament at Group Renew Europe, the solution is in a circular economy: “We need to create an environment that prohibits industries from going into linear systems and puts investments towards creating circular systems.” All plastics should be part of a closed loop system, which would avoid the production of virgin plastics and the creation of waste that ends up in landfill and incinerators. Creating these kinds of new capacities for plastic reduction relies on public money, which is why there is currently a big push to use COVID-19 recovery funds towards these kinds of initiatives.
Carbon pricing and a system like the ETS are no silver bullets to our climate and pollution crisis. In addition to carving out a path towards a circular economy, the EU needs multiple instruments working in unison towards this goal. Instruments such as the Industrial Emissions Directive, the Circular Economy Agenda, the Methane Strategy, and the Carbon Border Adjustment have the potential to be harmonised towards the creation of a climate neutral economy, in which all free emission allowances are phased out, and pollution from plastics is tackled from both ends of the spectrum.
Fossil gas has long been touted as being the cleanest of fossil fuels as well as a needed “bridge technology”. Plastics on the other hand have been hailed an integral part of modern society that might even deliver climate benefits due to their light weight. Andy Gheorghiu takes a closer look at the link between gas, climate and plastics and argues for an EU Methane Regulation that applies strict rules for both the fossil energy and the petrochemical sector.
Claims of gas as a “bridging technology” for its quality as the “cleanest fossil fuel” as well as “climate-friendly” plastics are far from being accurate or even factual.
The problem starts with the wording as such. Gas can’t be a “technology”. It is either a fossil fuel or a fossil feedstock, including for plastic production, and as such it is neither clean nor climate friendly. And there is also growing evidence and awareness that plastic production and consumption contributes significantly to global warming.
So, let us get some things clear here. Fossil gas consists primarily of methane. When fossil methane is released into the atmosphere, it is much more harmful to the climate than CO2 (up to 87 times more in the first 20 years, falling to 36 times more over 100 years). According to calculations, fracked shale-gas have been underestimated for a long time and may have contributed more than half of all of the increased emissions from fossil fuels globally and approximately one-third of the total increased emissions from all sources globally over the past decade. Satellite images show that methane emissions from other fossil fuel sources are also significant and relevant.
Fossil gas contributes significantly to global warming. At the same time, continued investments into gas infrastructure and petrochemicals are the main roadblocks for getting into full speed concerning the existential energy transition we need to accomplish rather sooner than later.
Two of the first scientists who addressed the problematic methane issue a decade ago were Robert Howarth and Anthony Ingraffea, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. Calls for bans on fracking and proper measurements of methane leakages followed. However, it took almost ten years until the EU Commission was finally willing to address the problem. On October 14, 2020, the Commission adopted its Methane Strategy as part of the European Green Deal.
However, there is a key sector which the Strategy fails to identify or highlight: the petrochemical and plastic industry. According to the International Energy Agency, petrochemicals are about to rapidly becoming the largest driver of global oil (including so-called “wet gas” or ethane) consumption – ahead of trucks, aviation and shipping. Today, the chemical sector is already the largest industrial consumer of fossil fuels, accounting for 14% of global oil and 8% of gas primary demand.
In 2019, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), published a report that outlined the full plastic lifecycle emissions (including the extraction of fossil fuels, production, transport, consumption and disposal) of global plastic production. The results – based on conservative approaches – are striking: we are on a pathway where plastics alone will generate 56 gigatons of CO2 by 2050 which corresponds to 10 – 13 percent of the global carbon budget we have left to stay within a 1.5 ° global warming scenario.
Given that oil and gas extraction, transport, production and processing, including production of petrochemicals and plastic) contribute significantly to methane emissions, the EU Methane Regulation must address methane in the petrochemical and plastic production sector along the full supply chain. Covering the full supply chain is in particular important with regard to the increasing imports of US fracked gas for plastic production in Europe and the fact that most of the fossil fuels consumed in the EU are imported – with 75-90% of the methane emissions being emitted before reaching the EU’s borders.
The following policy options are ways to reduce methane emissions – an imperative from both a climate change and plastic pollution point of view:
constant independent monitoring and measuring to a) measure methane leakages and b) repair the leaks;
a ban on routine venting and flaring of methane during oil and gas extraction but also within the production of petrochemicals and plastics;
cover the full supply chain of fossil fuels entering the EU market (including as an energy source or feedstock for petrochemicals and plastic production) and extend obligations to companies importing fossil energy into the EU/companies exporting fossil energy to the EU
fine non-compliance significantly;
ban imports of hydrocarbons (as an energy source or feedstock) which for which compliance with the overall requirements of the EU Methane Regulation cannot be credibly demonstrated.
A public consultation was just held about new rules on methane and the European Commission is expected to propose its EU Methane Regulation at the end of 2021. You can find Rethink Plastic’s submission to the public consultation here.
Four thousand kilometres away from the UK, panelist Dr. Sedat Gündoğdu, a microplastics researcher at Çukurova University in Turkey, splays out shiny crinkled packaging he picked up in an illegal dumping site and holds it up to his computer’s camera. For those attending our virtual Global Plastic Waste Trade panel on the other side of their screens, the provenance of this packaging isn’t hard to decode: a large British flag is boldly printed at the top of what was once a bag of crisps. Gündoğdu pulls up item after item, all from different parts of Europe. Most of what Gündoğdu pulls up are items that would have been diligently placed in recycling bins back home, and yet they are part of the 11.4 million tons of waste EU countries exported to Turkey in 2019 alone.
Turkey itself is the third largest producer of waste in Europe (after France and Germany) but can only officially manage 10% of its municipal waste, according to Gündoğdu. Over the last couple of years, however, the amount of waste Turkey has imported has increased ten- to twentyfold. This surge is a result of the National Sword policy that China enacted in 2018, closing its borders to foreign plastic waste imports in order to safeguard its territory from foreign plastic pollution. The fallout threw the global recycling industry into chaos, with the burden of waste and its associated health and environmental impacts diverted to other countries, many of them in Southeast Asia. Alarming photos of these nations awash in plastic – trash originating from much wealthier countries – perpetuated a narrative that these nations were irresponsibly handling this waste, dumping plastic and leaking microplastics into our oceans. When we consider that only nine percent of all plastic produced since 1950 has ever been recycled, this narrative quickly falls apart. In 2017 alone, the EU exported 2.55 million tonnes of plastic waste outside of its territory, under the pretext of recycling. Rather than operating as a keystone element to a circular economy, the global plastic waste trade has acted as a means for countries in the Global North to externalise the true costs of proper waste management to weaker economies, with huge social justice and environmental implications.
Gündoğdu jokes that an unintended ‘upside’ of the international waste trade is increased brand awareness of popular European consumer goods. The trash Gündoğdu picked up wasn’t difficult to find: illegal dumping and burning sites are found in abundance near people’s homes in the residential suburbs of Turkey. The downsides, however, are many and dire. The smoke caused by burning plastic is carried by the wind and felt even in the city. The toxic smell is so bad that residents are forced to keep their windows closed. Importers of plastic waste also use the irrigation canals that pass through the industrial recycling zone as dumping sites. These canals lead to one of the most important lagoon systems in the mediterranean sea, the Akyatan Lagoon, home to flamingoes and a breeding site for endangered green sea turtles. In addition to illegal dumping and burning, hundreds of waste treatment facilities have cropped up in the last three years, most of them employing refugees, asylum seekers and other members of disadvantaged communities under terrible working conditions. There is no proper monitoring of the health conditions of these facilities, no regulations in place. As plastic waste importing has boomed, so have the number of fires within these facilities, with over 100 reported in the last year.
In May 2019, about a year after China’s National Sword policy, amendments were made to the Basel Convention (the international treaty designed to control the movement and disposal of transboundary hazardous waste) to better control plastic waste. Unanimous agreement among the 180 member countries in record time affirmed the international plastic waste trade as a pressing concern. The amendments came into effect in January 2021: plastic waste that is difficult-to-recycle will now need to be clearly consented before being imported into receiving countries. This consent mechanism, however, evades an outright ban of plastic waste flows from countries in Europe to those in the Global South and does not apply to countries like Turkey within the OECD. Nor does it address the uneven economic playing field that leaves certain countries that lack the proper infrastructure and capacity to appropriately manage waste vulnerable to exploitation. A bilateral consent mechanism is a step in the right direction, but is far from providing the kind of oversight this crisis requires, and still leaves room for what has largely underpinned the global plastic waste trade: illegal trafficking.
Characterised by a lack of transparency,traceability and accountability, “the plastic waste trade in particular is notoriously opaque,” says Tim Grabiel of the Environmental Investigation Agency. He describes it as a “black box” that has been historically under-regulated, in large part because the waste traders and brokers involved in moving waste from one place to another are thought of as part of the logistical supply chain as opposed to critical actors in the fate of plastic waste. This fate, however, is well documented: plastic waste is often dumped, burned, or stockpiled in warehouses secured by brokers themselves and abandoned. What remains obscure are the many processes that organised criminals, corrupt officials and unscrupulous traders engage in up until the waste lands in a non-EU country. One government official estimates that 30% of organised crime in their member state is involved in the waste trade.
With the European Waste Shipment Regulation coming under review over the next few months, the European Union is presented with the opportunity to address the regulatory oversight that has allowed for a thriving black market of plastic waste in a multibillion-dollar global recycling industry that perpetuates disastrous environmental racism. As the wealthiest group of nations in the world, the EU has a responsibility to shoulder the costs of its own waste and become self-sufficient in order to limit plastic waste’s transboundary movement. An outright ban of plastic waste exportation to countries where the EU doesn’t have the means or jurisdiction to implement sound and frequent monitoring is a necessary measure. As is a rigorous standardised and streamlined electronic reporting system in order to ensure accessibility and transparency along the plastic waste supply chain.
Turkey, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries that became ‘destinations’for plastic waste once the National Sword policy came into effect have since enacted bans and restrictions of their own, but enforcing these bans remains a challenge. Turkey, for example, imposed a regulation in 2019 stating that licensed recyclers can only import 80% of their facility’s recycling capacity, a regulation rendered meaningless as companies’ reported capacities are largely misrepresented. Exports in the European Union have since gone down from 2.55 million tonnes in 2017 to 1.72 million tonnes in 2019. Where exactly the surplus of waste went is unclear, but intra-EU flows of waste have naturally increased, and unsustainable management of plastic waste has already been documented in certain Eastern European countries. This suggests a similar pattern of wealthier Western European countries externalising true costs to poorer nations. In order to prevent the consequences of mismanaged plastic waste within EU borders, full implementation of the Basel Convention within the EU is necessary, along with tighter restrictions that should be laid out in amendments to the Waste Shipment Regulation. These restrictions include establishing a clear preference for mechanical recycling over other forms of recovery operations that have higher environmental impacts, and a European-wide threshold for plastic waste contamination of 0.5%.
Gaël De Rotalier, team leader of the European Commission, sees the EU’s shared rules for the management of plastic waste all across its member states as a good foundation for the creation of a circular economy in Europe. Along with addressing how tighter enforcement, inspections, and coordinated regulatory oversight can be implemented through the Waste Shipment Regulation, the European Commission will be looking at how these regulations work in concert with the EU Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan. Important aspects of packaging – one of the most significant sources of plastic waste – such as its design and prevalence will be addressed, for example.
As Sirine Rached, moderator of our panel and global policy advocate at GAIA, points out: our problems with handling plastic waste are necessarily tied to our volumes of plastic production. As these volumes are expected to explode in the coming years, so are the societal and environmental consequences that come with the challenges of managing plastic waste. With the ongoing fight against a potential new plastic production facility in Antwerp, it is clear that many challenges still lie ahead and that the need for amendments to the Waste Shipment Regulation is as pressing as ever.
By Natasha Naayem for the Rethink Plastic alliance
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Last March, Surfrider Foundation Europe and the Rethink Plastic alliance decided to invite decision makers to witness this pollution with their own eyes.
