2024 – Plastic pollution | Recycling or reducing production: two visions collide

(Ottawa) Canadian industry supports reaching a deal to eliminate plastic pollution by 2040, but calls for recycling rather than cutting production. Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault hopes for a much more ambitious treaty. Delegates from 175 countries are meeting in Ottawa this week to take part in the fourth round of United Nations (UN) negotiations on the issue.

The kick-off was given by the chairman of the International Negotiating Committee (INC) of the UN Environment Programme, Luis Vayas Valdivieso, at the Ottawa Convention Center on Tuesday.

“The world is counting on us to deliver a new treaty that will guide the actions and international cooperation needed for a future without plastic pollution,” he said. “We cannot fail. »

The Canadian Chemical Industry Association (CACI) is one of the lobbyists on the ground. “Overall, we support the agreement,” plastics division vice president Christa Seaman said in an interview.

“We want the focus to be on pollution – which is the problem – and not on the production itself,” she adds. If we succeed in reaching a strong agreement that supports the circular economy, recycled plastic could meet 60% of demand by 2060.”

“I don’t think we can just implement recycling solutions and hope to achieve our goals,” Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault argued at a press conference on Tuesday.

Instead, Canada is advocating for solutions to eliminate plastic pollution throughout the production chain.

The previous round of negotiations in Nairobi, Kenya, led to some setback by expanding the draft treaty from 32 to 77 pages. Countries including Saudi Arabia and other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had urged their objections to more ambitious measures, such as limiting or phasing out plastic production, to be included. Instead, they hope to increase it to offset the negative impact of the energy transition on oil production.

In contrast, the 65 members of the ‘High Ambition Coalition’, chaired by Rwanda and Norway, want to tackle plastic production and the dangerous chemicals added to the material that can hinder recycling. Canada is one of them, as are most countries in the European Union. On Tuesday, word circulated in the corridors of the Ottawa Convention Center that the United States planned to join, which would send a strong message.

Several issues have received widespread support, such as the issue of plastic labeling and increasing the percentage of recycled materials in the production of new plastics. Others are still being negotiated, such as drawing up a list of plastics to be banned.

“Can we agree on this by the end of the year or can we agree that we will draw up a list and that we will fill this list – that will follow later in the negotiations,” said Minister Guilbeault. These are the kinds of discussions we will be having here in Ottawa and in South Korea until the end of the year. »

He hopes that the draft text will be shortened by 70%, to about 20 pages, so that countries can agree on the most controversial points during the fifth and final round of negotiations scheduled for Busan in South Korea. South end of November. For the time being, there must be unanimity among Member States, but the issue of a two-thirds adoption, which has already been rejected, could then be raised again.

With Agence France-Presse