Later this year, negotiators will gather in the Republic of Korea for a fifth round of discussions aimed at developing a legally binding international agreement to end plastic pollution.
The negotiations are designed to help counter the mounting toll plastic pollution is taking on the planet. Every year, the world produces around 430 million tonnes of plastic, most of which soon becomes waste. This rising tide of plastic debris damages fragile ecosystems, stokes climate change and can result in human exposure to harmful chemicals.
Central to any solution to plastic pollution is a concept known as the life-cycle approach. It aims to go beyond recycling and reduce the environmental toll that plastic pollution takes at every stage of the life cycle of plastics, from production to its use and disposal. In March 2022, UN Member States agreed to forge an international agreement on plastic pollution embracing the approach.
“Plastic pollution is a wide-ranging problem and there are many solutions that include shifting away from single-use and short-lived plastic, to ensuring the prolonged use of plastic through reuse systems, to better waste management and recycling,” said Sheila Aggarwal-Khan, the director of the Industry and Economy Division with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). “Recycling alone will not get us out of the plastic pollution crisis. We need a combination of approaches working in tandem across the life cycle of plastic to have a world free of plastic pollution.”
So, what exactly is the life-cycle approach and how can it help the world deal with plastic pollution in a systemic way? Read on to find out.
Why is plastic pollution so damaging?
Plastic products often need to have chemicals added to them to give them their functionality. Some of these are harmful chemicals and may enter the environment or human bodies depending on the production practices, use and disposal. As a result, there is a risk of pollution to the soil, groundwater, the marine environment, or harm to human health. The production of plastic is also responsible for more than 3 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to the climate crisis. This all makes plastic pollution a driver of the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste.
When people talk about the life cycle of plastic, what do they mean?
Experts refer to the extraction of raw materials, their conversion into products, and use and disposal of a product as its life cycle. In the case of plastic, the story usually begins in the ground. For most of plastic that is fossil fuel based, oil and gas are extracted from the earth and sent to refineries. There, they are transformed into plastic polymers, which are then moulded into products from water bottles and other single-use packaging material—including containers for food and beverage commodities—to fishing gear and products for use in agriculture or in transportation. After they have served their purpose, such products usually find their way to one of three places: a landfill (although often an uncontrolled dumpsite), an incinerator, and a recycling or re-use centre.
What is the life-cycle approach to plastic pollution?
The life-cycle approach looks to limit the potential problems caused by plastic products at every stage of their life, from their production to their disposal. UNEP research has found there are dozens of things that governments and businesses can do to accomplish that goal.
For example, countries could ban or restrict single-use plastic products or incentivize the development of plastic alternatives. Governments could provide the necessary regulation to send the signal to manufacturers to reduce and eliminate single-use plastic products, and change the product design to ensure plastic products are made of materials that are reusable, prolong their useful life, and that can be recycled at the end of their use. This means having plastic products designed to reduce environmental and human exposure to harmful chemicals across the life cycle of these products.
Since the plastics sector depends on legions of people around the world, including millions of informal waste pickers, the life-cycle approach also aims to balance socio-economic needs with concerns over plastic pollution.
Why is the life-cycle approach important?
Plastic is deeply embedded in our lives and our economies – and plastic pollution continues to mount. Research shows the life-cycle approach could save governments US$70 billion in waste management expenses, and save society US$4.5 trillion in social and environmental costs by 2040. It could also massively reduce the volume of plastics entering the ocean.
These benefits could be achieved by using the life-cycle approach to inform common design standards, create market incentives and disincentives, and expand reuse schemes, among other things.
The life-cycle approach is also essential to delivering on key multilateral environmental agreements, such as the Paris Agreement on climate change, and to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Why can’t we solve plastic pollution with recycling?
Recycling is important but it alone isn’t enough to end the plastic pollution crisis. For a start, close to 80 per cent of the plastic in single-use plastic products is not economically viable to recycle. This can be due to design decisions for a plastic product, such as the type of polymer used, and absence of adequate recycling infrastructure, the use of colour additives and combination of materials in a single product, or the use of additives that if harmful, can also pose a health threat to workers in waste management and recycling.
Additionally, more than 2.7 billion people do not have access to solid waste collection and scaling up recycling infrastructure is challenging.
“To phase out and ultimately end plastic pollution, there needs to be a combination of solutions across the life cycle of plastics,” said Aggarwal-Khan. “The only way to do that, is with the life-cycle approach.”
