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Celebrities Join Greenpeace in Demanding Biden Go Big on Global Plastics Treaty
"Will you be the president who helped put an end to the plastic pollution crisis, or someone who let it spiral further out of control?"
May 18, 2023
Actors known for their environmental advocacy—including Jane Fonda, Jason Momoa, Joaquin Phoenix, Susan Sarandon, and Laura Dern—joined Greenpeace USA on Thursday in an open letter to U.S. President Joe Biden urging his administration to "protect the planet from plastic pollution" and slash carbon emissions "by supporting a strong global plastics treaty."
"We appreciate your leadership in securing a global oceans treaty that creates a path to protecting 30% of our oceans by 2030," the letter's signers told Biden. "Winning the treaty was truly a historic moment, one of the greatest environmental achievements in history."
"We're calling on President Biden to put aside fossil fuel and plastics industry interests and lead us on the path that prioritizes human health, biodiversity, and our communities."
"At the end of May, delegates from around the world will convene in Paris for the second round of negotiations on a global plastics treaty," the letter continues, referring to talks hosted by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
"While you have signaled support for this treaty, the U.S. position is not yet strong enough," the letter argues. "Currently, the U.S. is not calling for a cap on plastic production—which is the only real way to stop plastic pollution. In 2021, the U.S. only recycled a mere 5% of plastics produced."
\u201cDozens of public figures have joined Greenpeace USA in calling on @POTUS to support an ambitious, legally binding Global #PlasticsTreaty that caps plastics production and supports solutions like refill & reuse! \ud83d\udc4f\n\nThank you for lending your voices \ud83d\udd3d https://t.co/qc5IOkuYsX\u201d— Greenpeace USA (@Greenpeace USA) 1684427402
The letter continues:
Plastics are polluting and harmful at every stage of their life cycle—from extraction to disposal. Ninety-nine percent of plastics come from fossil fuels; cutting plastic production will make a significant dent in carbon emissions. There are communities living next to refineries and petrochemical facilities who are bearing the combined brunt of the climate and plastic crises. People living near these facilities—overwhelmingly people of color—face higher rates of cancer, asthma, and adverse birth outcomes.
"President Biden, you have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help our climate, our oceans, and our communities this year by supporting a strong and ambitious global plastics treaty," the signers asserted. "The decision you make on this critical issue will help define your legacy—will you be the president who helped put an end to the plastic pollution crisis, or someone who let it spiral further out of control? We're calling on you to do the right thing."
Other actors who signed the letter include Rosana Arquette, Alec Baldwin, Ed Begley, Ted Danson, Piper Perabo, Kyra Sedgwick, William Shatner, and Shailene Woodley.
\u201cPLASTIC IS EVERYWHERE \ud83d\udc40 \n\nWe need a Global Plastics Treaty Now! \n\u26a0\ufe0fSign the petition >> https://t.co/HYJelSJO2i\u201d— Greenpeace USA (@Greenpeace USA) 1683904641
Greenpeace is proposing a seven-point plan for the global plastics treaty:
- Achieve immediate, significant reductions in plastic production, establishing a pathway to end virgin plastic production;
- Promote a shift to refill- and reuse-based economies, creating jobs and standards in new reuse industries and supporting established zero-waste practices;
- Support a just transition for workers across the plastics supply chain, prioritizing waste pickers who collect approximately 60% of all plastic that is collected for recycling globally;
- Promote noncombustion technologies for plastic stockpiles and waste disposal;
- Institute the "polluter pays" principle for plastic waste management and for addressing the health and environmental costs throughout the plastics life cycle;
- Significantly improve regulation, oversight, safety, and worker protections for existing recycling facilities; and
- Require transparency about chemicals in plastics and eliminate all toxic additives and chemicals used in the plastics life cycle.
"Many environmental groups and frontline communities are disappointed with the U.S.' current position on the treaty, as it does not call for a cap on plastic production and instead focuses on recycling," Greenpeace USA senior plastics campaigner Lisa Ramsden said in a statement.
"Recycling will never solve the plastic waste problem," Ramsden added. "We must stop plastic waste at its source, and we're calling on President Biden to put aside fossil fuel and plastics industry interests and lead us on the path that prioritizes human health, biodiversity, and our communities."
On Tuesday, UNEP published a report contending that global plastic pollution can be reduced by 80% by 2040 if countries and corporations enact major changes using existing technologies. However, the report was criticized by some environmentalists for promoting the burning of plastic waste.
\u201cThe exclusion of civil society from the plastics treaty negotiations is unprecedented in multilateral negotiations. Goes against the grain of participatory democratic principles that the @UNEP is supposed to uphold!#PlasticsTreaty @third_pole @BBCWorld @LeFigaro_News @lemondelive\u201d— Dharmesh Shah #PlasticsTreaty (@Dharmesh Shah #PlasticsTreaty) 1684285907
UNEP has also come under fire in recent days for issuing just one pass per organization attending the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations in Paris.
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175 Nations to Agree on 'Historic' Plastic Pollution Treaty
The treaty will be "an insurance policy for this generation and future ones, so they may live with plastic and not be doomed by it," said one official.
Mar 02, 2022
The vast majority of the world's countries agreed Wednesday to forge a legally-binding global treaty restricting plastic pollution, in a move one official said demonstrated "multilateral cooperation at its best."
Negotiators representing 175 nations met over the past week in Nairobi, Kenya to discuss a joint proposal originally presented by Rwandan and Peruvian representatives.
The countries reached an agreement Wednesday to forge a treaty by 2024, with the details of the pact to be decided in upcoming talks.
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said the agreement marked an "historic day in the campaign to beat plastic pollution," which was responsible for more greenhouse gas pollution in 2015 than all the world's airplanes combined, according to one study.
\u201c\u201cToday was one for the history books. It was truly a big day for the environment.\u201d - @andersen_inger \n\nNations committed to develop a legally binding agreement to #BeatPlasticPollution at #UNEA5.\n\nLearn more: https://t.co/XTWPMqAtR5\u201d— UN Environment Programme (@UN Environment Programme) 1646243417
"Plastic pollution has grown into an epidemic," said Espen Barth Eide, president of the U.N. Environment Assembly and Norway's minister for climate and the environment. "With today's resolution we are officially on track for a cure."
The resolution calls on countries to hammer out a final treaty which could ban single-use plastics. Making up the vast majority of all plastic products in the world, only 9% of single-use plastic is ever recycled while 79% is incinerated.
"This landmark decision sets the stage for an all-inclusive approach to resolve the plastic pollution crisis."
As Common Dreams reported in January, scientists believe at the current rate of plastic pollution buildup the weight of plastics in the world's oceans "could exceed the collective weight of all fish in the ocean."
The production, incineration, and disposal of plastics in landfills all produce greenhouse gas emissions and release toxic compounds.
The agreement reached on Wednesday recognized "the importance of promoting sustainable design of products and materials so that they can be reused, remanufactured, or recycled and therefore retained in the economy for as long as possible along with the resources they are made of, as well as minimizing the generation of waste, which can significantly contribute to sustainable production and consumption of plastics."
"This landmark decision sets the stage for an all-inclusive approach to resolve the plastic pollution crisis," said Von Hernandez, global coordinator for the grassroots movement Break Free From Plastic. "Receiving the recognition that this problem needs to be addressed across the whole plastics value chain is a victory for groups and communities who have been confronting the plastic industry's transgressions and false narratives for years."
According to Break Free From Plastic, 75% of people polled in a recent global survey believe single-use plastic should be banned.
Negotiators said the final treaty will be modeled on the Paris climate agreement of 2015, demanding that countries set legally-binding targets to change how products are packaged, improve recycling systems, and assist the Global South in addressing plastic pollution.
"Africa is not a major producer of chemicals or plastics," Tadesse Amera , co-chair of the International Pollutants Elimination Networkin Ethiopia, told the New York Times.
Yet countries including the U.S. export more than one billion pounds of plastic waste to countries all over the world. The U.S.--the second-largest plastic producer in the world after China--has yet to sign onto a 2020 agreement limiting plastic waste exports.
"Some legal obligations arising out of a new international legally binding instrument will require capacity-building and technical and financial assistance in order to be effectively implemented by developing countries and countries with economies in transition," the resolution stated.
The agreement also recognizes microplastics, which build up over time in the world's oceans, drinking water, and rainfall as a driver of pollution.
"This is the most significant environmental multilateral deal since the Paris accord," said Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP. "It is an insurance policy for this generation and future ones, so they may live with plastic and not be doomed by it."
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'Encouraging': Unlike Trump, Biden Backs Global Treaty for Plastic Pollution
"Plastic is a global problem, and requires action and coordination at a global scale," said a Greenpeace campaigner. "As a major producer and exporter of plastic, the U.S. has a responsibility to take a leadership role."
Nov 18, 2021
In stark contrast to the U.S. position under former President Donald Trump, the Biden administration on Thursday signaled support for developing a global treaty to tackle marine plastic pollution, winning swift applause from environmental campaigners.
"As a major producer and exporter of plastic, the U.S. has a responsibility to take a leadership role."
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the announcement while visiting the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya, on the heels of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland earlier this month.
"It is encouraging to see the U.S. throwing its support behind a global plastic treaty," said Greenpeace USA Oceans Campaign director John Hocevar. "Plastic pollution is one of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time, with the impacts growing more serious every day. Plastic is a global problem, and requires action and coordination at a global scale. As a major producer and exporter of plastic, the U.S. has a responsibility to take a leadership role."
Hocevar also said that "our focus must be broader than keeping plastic waste out of the ocean. We have put so much plastic into the environment that it is in the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. Plastic is fueling the climate crisis and harming our health. The damage caused by plastic production and disposal is a major environmental justice issue, with communities of color often suffering the worst impacts."
"Voluntary measures are not going to be sufficient," he added. "We need to see real leadership, and that means initiatives at all geographic scales that will swiftly move us away from our reliance on plastic and facilitate a transition to package-free options and reuse. Plastic is a problem that must be addressed at the source. Until we stop making so much plastic, the damage to our oceans, our climate, and our health will only get worse."
\u201cWe applaud this commitment to a global treaty on fighting plastic pollution from the US. A coordinated and ambitious approach from governments, businesses and civil society that accelerates us toward a circular economy for plastics is exactly what we need.\u201d— WWF-US Action Team (@WWF-US Action Team) 1637255962
During his remarks Thursday, Blinken also highlighted the importance of global cooperation on the problem.
"Today, we are... stepping up our efforts to tackle another pollutant that threatens our planet, plastic, by announcing the United States support for multilateral negotiations on a global agreement to combat ocean plastic pollution," he said. "By launching these negotiations at the U.N. Environmental Assembly in February 2022, our goal is to create a tool that we can use to protect our oceans and all of the life that they sustain from growing global harms of plastic pollution."
"It's crucial that the agreement call on countries to develop and enforce strong national action plans to address this problem at its source," Blinken continued. "Many countries, climate and ocean advocates, private companies, have supported this effort for some time. We're grateful for the serious work that they've already put into this effort and look forward to working with them. The private sector in particular will need to do more to cut plastic pollution and invest in innovation."
The U.S. diplomat acknowledged that millions of tons are dumped into the ocean each year, and "can take anywhere from decades to millions of years to break down." He also noted the serious impacts on sea creatures and humanity, explaining that "microplastics can tear apart animals' organs, clog their intestines, and give them the illusion they're full, causing them to starve to death. And because plastics absorb toxins, when we eat seafood, we're not only consuming microplastics, but toxins as well."
"We face a monumental challenge of protecting our oceans, but if we're ambitious in both our global and our local efforts, if we can combine the efforts of government and industry with those of communities and individuals, if we empower the innovative approaches that we've seen," Blinken added, "I'm convinced we can overcome this challenge... We can meet it together."
Erin Simon, head of plastic waste and business at World Wildlife Fund (WWF), said Thursday that "as the plastic pollution crisis continues to suffocate our planet, there's never been a more important time to show U.S. government support for a U.N. treaty on plastic pollution. Secretary Blinken's commitment sends a strong signal to global leaders that this is an urgent problem that can only be solved when everyone comes to the table."
"If we want to solve this crisis, we can't wait. A coordinated and ambitious approach from governments, businesses, and civil society that accelerates us toward a circular economy for plastics is exactly what we need, and what a global treaty at UNEA-5 can deliver," added Simon, referencing the assembly session that begins early next year.
Although Trump signed some bipartisan legislation to address ocean plastic pollution, Agence France-Pressenoted Thursday that the former administration wasn't supportive of other efforts:
[E]nvironmentalists say that the previous administration stymied international efforts by opposing a treaty and blaming the problem squarely on China--a major source of plastic processing but of material often coming from the West.
In 2019, the United States did not join around 180 governments which agreed in Geneva to create a legally binding framework to regulate plastic waste.
The United States did not vote as it is not party to the Basel Convention, a U.N. treaty reached in 1989 that regulates the movement of hazardous waste.
Before President Joe Bide took office in January, a coalition of over 550 groups encouraged him to become the #PlasticFreePresident and take on the crisis through executive actions that would help "protect vulnerable frontline communities and marine life while addressing a key driver of climate change."
"Until we stop making so much plastic, the damage to our oceans, our climate, and our health will only get worse."
As Common Dreams reported last month, a recent UNEP report emphasized the need for "a drastic reduction in unnecessary, avoidable, and problematic plastic," warning that such pollution in waterways could triple by 2040.
UNEP's executive director, Inger Andersen, introduced Blinken on Thursday and welcomed his announcement. She told him that "your presence here today is hugely important. Your being here demonstrates that the United States wants to be part of multilateral solutions that will keep the environmental action up and running."
"Meaningful action on pollution will require us to journey beyond our comfort zones, engaging with numerous environmental agreements with business and finance, with cities, with civil society, with entrepreneurs, and with people everywhere," Andersen said. "As we seek to work together to address a triple-planetary crisis--the crisis of climate change, the crisis of biodiversity and nature loss, and the crisis of pollution and waste--we have a real opportunity to push full speed ahead towards environmental multilateralism that makes an impact, a positive impact, on people's lives."
This post has been updated with comment from WWF.
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