How the world can reduce plastic pollution by 80% by 2040

In less than 20 years, countries could reduce plastic pollution by 80%, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).

Plastic pollution is a problem that affects the world as a whole, from the Arctic to the oceans, even in the air we breathe. It even changes ecosystems.

Recently, scientists found rocks made of plastic on a remote island in Brazil, and these days there is so much plastic floating around in parts of the Pacific Ocean that communities of coastal creatures live on top of this debris thousands of miles from their original home.

In recent decades, production levels for plastic have skyrocketed, especially single-use plastics, and waste management systems have failed to keep pace. In 2021, the world produced 139 million tons of single-use plastic waste.

If no action is taken, global plastic production is expected to triple by 2060.

The UNEP report aims to provide a roadmap for governments and businesses to drastically cut levels of plastic pollution. Three main strategies are at the heart of the plan: reuse, recycling and the use of alternative materials.

Reusing plastics would have the biggest impact, according to the report, which also recommends promoting refillable bottles, deposit programs to encourage people to return plastic products, and packaging take-back actions. This would be the “most significant market shift”, reducing plastic pollution by 30% by 2040.

Increasing recycling levels could reduce plastic pollution by another 20%, according to the UNEP document. Only about 9% of plastics are recycled each year in the world, and the rest ends up incinerated or dumped in landfills.

The report also recommends stopping fossil fuel subsidies that help make new plastic products cheaper, which discourages recycling and the use of alternative materials. Fossil fuels are the raw material for almost all plastics.

Using alternative materials suitable for single-use products such as packaging and sachets, including switching to compostable materials that decompose more easily, could reduce plastic pollution by 17%, according to the document.

“The way we produce, use and dispose of plastics is polluting ecosystems, creating risks to human health and destabilizing the climate,” Inger Andersen, UNEP Executive Director, wrote in a statement.

“The UNEP report presents a roadmap to dramatically reduce these risks by adopting a circular approach that keeps plastics out of ecosystems, our bodies and the economy.”

The report estimates that the investment required for the recommended changes is around US$65 billion per year (about R$320 billion), but cites that this figure is much less than the costs of doing nothing. Shifting to an economy where plastic is reused and recycled could save $3.25 trillion by 2040 by avoiding the negative impacts of plastic, including those on climate, health, air and water.

Reducing plastics by 80% would cut carbon pollution by half a billion tons a year, according to estimates in the report. Furthermore, it could create 700,000 new jobs, mostly in developing countries.

However, even with all these changes, the world will still have to manage around 100 million tons of plastic waste from short-lived products by 2040, according to the report. This is equivalent, by weight, to almost 5 million containers that, lined up end to end, could go and return from New York City to Sydney, Australia.

To address this problem, the report mentions that stricter standards for non-recyclable waste will be needed, as well as increased responsibility of manufacturers for the impacts of their plastic products.

The report comes as countries prepare for a second round of talks in Paris later this month, with the aim of reaching agreement on the world’s first international plastics treaty, which would address the entire lifespan of plastics. plastics, from production to disposal. Whether or not to incorporate restrictions on the manufacture of plastics into the treaty is still a point of contention.