What comes to mind when you think about #plastics?

For many people, they think about plastic pollution.

Despite plastics being a small part of municipal waste (it actually only accounts for 12% of global types of waste), it is indeed the most visible - plastic floats in water, it doesn’t degrade easily so it stays visible on land if littered, and of course, it’s all over social media and the news.

That’s why we’ve come together at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) INC-4 negotiations, for countries to negotiate a Global Plastics Pollution Treaty here in Ottawa, Canada. 🍁

Everyone around the world knows that plastics do not belong in the environment, or in landfills.

As I attend these important meetings here in Ottawa, where thousands of voices have convened to discuss actions that governments, industries, organizations, and people all around the world can take to stop plastic pollution, I find myself thinking about some important realities that unfortunately don’t come to mind for most, when it comes to plastics.

➡️Plastics preserve and protect. We need, and will carry on needing, plastics to protect our food, our health, and well being. Think about how plastic packaging provides access to clean, safe drinking water to those who need it most, and how it extends the shelf life of food.

➡️ Plastics hold unmatchable technical properties that make them the most suitable material for many critical applications such as in healthcare. In many cases, there are no viable, accessible, affordable alternatives that can do the job as effectively (think syringes) and with the lowest environmental impact (think a PET bottle vs glass bottle).

➡️Plastics such as PET can, and are, being recycled over and over again. The technology exists, and recycling works when collection works. Plastics are not garbage - they are actually a valuable resource. Just ask Ice River Sustainable Solutions

Everyone around the world knows that plastics do not belong in the environment or in landfills. But we need to keep using plastics because of the critical role they play in delivering essentials that support the health and wellbeing of billions of people all around the world today.

Here are four legislative (and practical) solutions that I hope we can find common ground on:

1. Recycled content targets - To incentivize the “economy” half of the circular economy

2. Well-designed EPR - Where funds collected directly support collection

3. Design for circularity - Starting with sustainability in mind, from the beginning of the design phase of the product

4. Agree on a holistic life cycle evaluation of ALL materials - Including plastics & alternatives, to ensure moving from one solution to another does not cause intended harm. The evaluation should consider:

• Preserve & Protect standards to determine how well the material performs its intended function. (For example, paper is not a suitable alternative for beverages as it absorbs water)
• LCA of Environmental Impacts such as waste, carbon emissions, water use, deforestation, and mining.
• Availability, affordability, and scalability of global solutions that considers the needs of all people.

Plastics are often the best and most suitable material when holistically considering these factors.

We have an opportunity through these UNEP meetings to encourage and scale solutions that will make a real impact - solutions that would not only help protect the environment, but do so while uplifting and preserving the health, wellbeing, and prosperity of all those around the world.

Moving from a linear to circular economy is the answer.💫