Record amount of plastic recovered in largest ever ocean clean-up
By Cover Media Time of the article published Jul 19, 2020
A record amount of plastic has been recovered from the largest ever ocean clean-up.
Over the course of 48 days, an expedition to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch managed to haul an astonishing 103 tons of plastic from the ocean.
The mission was run by Ocean Voyages Institute, a non-profit founded in 1979 to help preserve the world’s oceans.
The Institute’s cleanup is the largest to date at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
This remote area of the Pacific Ocean, located between California and Hawaii, is a swirling vortex that corrals and traps an astonishing amount of trash.
The items that Ocean Voyages Institute managed to pluck from the ocean is quite representative of what’s left behind - an overwhelming amount of fishing gear and consumer plastics.
A record amount of plastic has been recovered from the largest ever ocean clean-up. Picture: Ocean Voyages Institute/Cover Media
Commercial fishing equipment and “ghost nets,” which are fishing nets cast overboard instead of being properly disposed of, accounted for the majority of the 103 tons retrieved.
Sadly, the crew found numerous turtle skeletons tangled in the nets, which shows the real-life consequences of these careless actions.
“I am so proud of our hard-working crew,” shares Mary Crowley, Founder and Executive Director of Ocean Voyages Institute.
“We exceeded our goal of capturing 100 tons of toxic consumer plastics and derelict ‘ghost’ nets, and in these challenging times, we are continuing to help restore the health of our ocean, which influences our own health and the health of the planet. The oceans can’t wait for these nets and debris to break down into microplastics which impair the ocean’s ability to store carbon and toxify the fragile ocean food web.”
Known as the “Ghost Net Buster,” Crowley is renowned for developing effective methods to remove significant amounts of plastics out of the ocean, including 48 tons (96,000 lbs.) of toxic plastics during two ocean clean-ups in 2019, one from the Gyre and one from the waters surrounding the Hawaiian islands.
Plastic and other Environmental Dangerous Waste
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That 's only a minimum part and then there is the microplastic
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
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Re: Plastic and other Environmental Dangerous Waste
ENVIRONMENT According to research published in «Science», the material that ends up in water could triple by 2040, for a total of almost 600 million tons
© AFP/DIMITAR DILKOFF
Plastic in the oceans like 3 million blue whales
ats
23 luglio 2020 , 20:00
The plastic that ends up in the oceans could triple by 2040, for a total of almost 600 million tons, equivalent to the weight of more than 3 million blue whales.
An increase to which the COVID-19 pandemic is contributing with the high consumption of disposable plastic. This is indicated by research published in Science and coordinated by Winnie Lau, of the US non-governmental organization The Pew Charitable Trusts.
Research indicates that without any action to reduce plastic production and consumption, the quantity released into the seas is expected to increase from 11 million tons to 29 million tons in the next 20 years, equivalent to almost 50 kilograms of plastic per meter of it costs all over the world.
Uncollected municipal solid waste is the main source of this pollution, many of which come from households. The data also indicate that current commitments made by governments and industry will only reduce the amount of plastic in the oceans by 7% by 2040.
The replacement of some plastics with paper and other degradable materials, the design of recyclable products and packaging, the increase in recycling are just some of the measures that, according to the research, by 2040 could reduce plastic by about 80% which flows into the ocean every year, with government savings of $ 70 billion and the creation of 700,000 jobs.
© AFP/DIMITAR DILKOFF
Plastic in the oceans like 3 million blue whales
ats
23 luglio 2020 , 20:00
The plastic that ends up in the oceans could triple by 2040, for a total of almost 600 million tons, equivalent to the weight of more than 3 million blue whales.
An increase to which the COVID-19 pandemic is contributing with the high consumption of disposable plastic. This is indicated by research published in Science and coordinated by Winnie Lau, of the US non-governmental organization The Pew Charitable Trusts.
Research indicates that without any action to reduce plastic production and consumption, the quantity released into the seas is expected to increase from 11 million tons to 29 million tons in the next 20 years, equivalent to almost 50 kilograms of plastic per meter of it costs all over the world.
Uncollected municipal solid waste is the main source of this pollution, many of which come from households. The data also indicate that current commitments made by governments and industry will only reduce the amount of plastic in the oceans by 7% by 2040.
The replacement of some plastics with paper and other degradable materials, the design of recyclable products and packaging, the increase in recycling are just some of the measures that, according to the research, by 2040 could reduce plastic by about 80% which flows into the ocean every year, with government savings of $ 70 billion and the creation of 700,000 jobs.
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
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Re: Plastic and other Environmental Dangerous Waste
The replacement of some plastics with paper and other degradable materials, the design of recyclable products and packaging, the increase in recycling are just some of the measures that, according to the research, by 2040 could reduce plastic by about 80% which flows into the ocean every year, with government savings of $ 70 billion and the creation of 700,000 jobs.
Thank you!
Thank you!
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Re: Plastic and other Environmental Dangerous Waste
https://youtu.be/H2JGrXPZZV4
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
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Re: Plastic and other Environmental Dangerous Waste
At last – Woolworths makes a move to rid South Africa of plastic shopping bags
By Tiara Walters• 16 November 2020
Photo by Brian Yurasits on Unsplash
This year — initially meant to be the auspicious start of a new, spick-and-span decade — has proven so mystifying that some media, including a commentator on this platform, have suggested that there is a one-third chance that we may be living in an actual computer simulation.
Few psychological phenomena, however, can be as odd as humanity’s addiction to plastic — a substance praised as “convenient”, even as it chokes our rivers, strangles wildlife, ends up on our dinner plates, and breaks into micro units so small that global air currents are now dumping it as far afield as the Arctic. Convenient, nè?
For us here at Our Burning Planet, a pinnacle of this stupidity emerged when Woolworths stores were found in 2019 to be peddling tiny plastic knifespoon-things with every punnet of Zespri® SunGold kiwifruit.
They were called “spifes” (a portmanteau for “spoon” and “knife”), Woolworths told me. When asked how it intended a single-use plastic utensil like the spife to reflect its “Good Business Journey”, or how this might add value to lives of die-hard kiwifruit consumers everywhere, the retailer responded with an explanation on how to use a spife (“Cut, scoop, enjoy!”). However, it was quick to point out that the spife was a promotional item, which, coincidentally, had just “ended”.
In the ensuing months, I received unfailingly polite follow-up emails from the retailer’s marketing department, outlining its “single-use plastic achievements”.
According to Diane Peterson, Woolworths “sustainability communications consultant”, its green-living coups included “new speciality tomato packaging in a kraft box base with a recyclable clarified polypropylene lid”. Peterson also highlighted a coffee-cup recycling programme; and “diverting over a million 500ml PET bottles from waste streams”. This was apparently achieved by recycling a tsunami of bottles into polyester materials for its winter fashion ranges.
“Nice try, Woolies,” I thought, tapped the “x” on the email and moved to the next story in the queue. These attempts, though undoubtedly worthy, rang somewhat hollow while Woolworths counters across the country still groaned under the weight of plastic shopping bags, just bursting to pop into the next national flower on an acacia near you. (Also, I was struggling to unsee those spifes.)
In August, another email from the diligent Peterson, this time titled, “25 Woolworths stores are now plastic shopping bag-free”. This, and milestones before it, she wrote, resonated with the retailer’s mission to phase out single-use plastic bags. By 2022, she had stressed in an email a month earlier, the idea was to ensure all its packaging was either reusable or recyclable.
“Ah, nice try, Woolies,” I noted under my breath again, recalling visions of interviewing then environment minister Valli Moosa back in 2004 and suggesting that his attempts to make consumers pay for plastic shopping bags did not seem to be working as much of a deterrent. (This was not favourably received.) I hit that x.
Earlier this month, I was at my local Woolworths check-out, trying to balance all manner of groceries on available limbs and hands after forgetting the reusables at home. (This reporter may also have used the unfolding drama at the till to demonstrate that, no matter how many plastic bags were lurking instore, she was less likely to surrender than an outgoing American despot with an endangered combover budget to defend.)
“You know… ma’am,” the cashier sighed while this fiasco was failing to smooth the transition to the next customer in the small-basket line, “from next week 145 of our stores will be plastic bag-free”.
A day or two later, it was as if Donald “Twittler” Trump himself had bombed my inbox with caps. However, this time, the news — to be fair — could not be more welcome: “145 WOOLWORTHS STORES ARE NOW PLASTIC BAG-FREE.”
Despite a “challenging year”, Woolworths has continued “rolling out its low-cost reusable bag to 120 additional stores”, Peterson’s latest missive claimed. This, as part of the retailer’s “commitment to phase out single-use plastic shopping bags” and reduce its landfill packaging to zero.
Feroz Koor, Woolworths Holdings sustainability group head, chimed in: “We are delighted to be able to take such a significant step forward in the removal of single-use plastic shopping bags from our stores, especially at a time when we have had so many supply uncertainties. The local supplier of our low-cost reusable bag has been severely impacted by Covid-19 lockdown disruptions, which has lost them 692 hours of production time over the last eight months.”
The supplier’s production of reusable alternatives had increased to such an extent that the retailer could now “remove single-use plastic shopping bags from an additional 120 stores”, said Koor. “This is a substantial move to reaching our goal of removing all single-use plastic shopping bags.”
Lorren de Kock, WWF-SA project manager for a circular plastics economy, said it was “great to see Woolworths removing single-use plastic bags from these stores and taking on the task of educating their consumers about adopting more reuse actions in their daily lives and supporting local enterprises”.
She also pointed out it was “important for the consumer to understand that these reusable bags need to be reused to carry groceries or repurposed multiple times and not only used once”.
There you have it, folks. Just in case you were thinking of stashing those reusables in the trash.
Of course, one might say all major retailers in South Africa are late to the game — in these here parts, plastic shopping bags are more common than surviving Trump appointees at the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Yet, credit is due to Woolworths for pushing ahead with its sustainability aims despite the black swan of a year that has swooped down upon industry, the Two Oceans Aquarium’s Hayley McLellan told Our Burning Planet.
A long-standing sustainability campaigner for initiatives such as “Rethink the Bag”, which promotes reusable bags over plastic counterparts, McLellan describes herself as an “environmental change agent”.
“If I think back to 2011, when I launched Rethink the Bag: the late Tom McLaughlin, then sustainability manager for Woolworths, was actually in the room. I was thrilled,” McLellan said. McLaughlin, said to have pioneered the retailer’s “Good Business Journey”, died in 2019. “This conversation has truly come a long way.”
She called the retailer a “leader in reducing plastic shopping bags”, simultaneously acknowledging efforts by grocery retailer Food Lover’s Market to opt for paper-based alternatives.
“The other big brands have some way to go in this regard,” noted McLellan, also known for her work in wildlife conservation, particularly injured penguins. “From an ocean advocate’s perspective, brown bags are better than plastic in the moment, but not if one looks at the entire life cycle analysis. Brown bags have a high carbon footprint and are not considered a long-life carrier bag. People need to be set up for success so that they form reusable habits, using shopping bags built to last.”
Plastic bags were “only the tip of the iceberg”, she added. “The plastic problem does not begin once it lands on a beach, in the ocean and then in a sea creature. It starts in the design stage, where conversations need to be had between designers, brands, consumers, environmentalists and recyclers.”
Being green in a society mostly married to the opposite can be hard; and Woolworths is not out of the plastic woods yet. It has a reputation for fortressing its fresh produce, among others, in non-recyclable plastic packaging.
Plus there are 730 stores scattered throughout the length and breadth of our land, of which 586 still need to free themselves of a wasteful product at odds with a circular economy.
But boosting its plastic bag-free stores to a complement of 145 from just 25 in August is a beginning — and throws down the gauntlet at the doorstep of competitors still lagging behind on this front.
Postscript: Our sources tell us that, for every six-pack punnet of kiwifruit sold at our local Woolies recently, someone had inserted a single Zespri® SunGold kiwifruit, neatly reducing the numbers of fuzzy kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) per pack from six to five. While we want you to know that we see you, Woolworths, we can forgive you this once — especially since no spifes have been spotted anywhere near the kiwifruit section since the November 2019 promotion seemed to have died with a whimper. DM
By Tiara Walters• 16 November 2020
Photo by Brian Yurasits on Unsplash
This year — initially meant to be the auspicious start of a new, spick-and-span decade — has proven so mystifying that some media, including a commentator on this platform, have suggested that there is a one-third chance that we may be living in an actual computer simulation.
Few psychological phenomena, however, can be as odd as humanity’s addiction to plastic — a substance praised as “convenient”, even as it chokes our rivers, strangles wildlife, ends up on our dinner plates, and breaks into micro units so small that global air currents are now dumping it as far afield as the Arctic. Convenient, nè?
For us here at Our Burning Planet, a pinnacle of this stupidity emerged when Woolworths stores were found in 2019 to be peddling tiny plastic knifespoon-things with every punnet of Zespri® SunGold kiwifruit.
They were called “spifes” (a portmanteau for “spoon” and “knife”), Woolworths told me. When asked how it intended a single-use plastic utensil like the spife to reflect its “Good Business Journey”, or how this might add value to lives of die-hard kiwifruit consumers everywhere, the retailer responded with an explanation on how to use a spife (“Cut, scoop, enjoy!”). However, it was quick to point out that the spife was a promotional item, which, coincidentally, had just “ended”.
In the ensuing months, I received unfailingly polite follow-up emails from the retailer’s marketing department, outlining its “single-use plastic achievements”.
According to Diane Peterson, Woolworths “sustainability communications consultant”, its green-living coups included “new speciality tomato packaging in a kraft box base with a recyclable clarified polypropylene lid”. Peterson also highlighted a coffee-cup recycling programme; and “diverting over a million 500ml PET bottles from waste streams”. This was apparently achieved by recycling a tsunami of bottles into polyester materials for its winter fashion ranges.
“Nice try, Woolies,” I thought, tapped the “x” on the email and moved to the next story in the queue. These attempts, though undoubtedly worthy, rang somewhat hollow while Woolworths counters across the country still groaned under the weight of plastic shopping bags, just bursting to pop into the next national flower on an acacia near you. (Also, I was struggling to unsee those spifes.)
In August, another email from the diligent Peterson, this time titled, “25 Woolworths stores are now plastic shopping bag-free”. This, and milestones before it, she wrote, resonated with the retailer’s mission to phase out single-use plastic bags. By 2022, she had stressed in an email a month earlier, the idea was to ensure all its packaging was either reusable or recyclable.
“Ah, nice try, Woolies,” I noted under my breath again, recalling visions of interviewing then environment minister Valli Moosa back in 2004 and suggesting that his attempts to make consumers pay for plastic shopping bags did not seem to be working as much of a deterrent. (This was not favourably received.) I hit that x.
Earlier this month, I was at my local Woolworths check-out, trying to balance all manner of groceries on available limbs and hands after forgetting the reusables at home. (This reporter may also have used the unfolding drama at the till to demonstrate that, no matter how many plastic bags were lurking instore, she was less likely to surrender than an outgoing American despot with an endangered combover budget to defend.)
“You know… ma’am,” the cashier sighed while this fiasco was failing to smooth the transition to the next customer in the small-basket line, “from next week 145 of our stores will be plastic bag-free”.
A day or two later, it was as if Donald “Twittler” Trump himself had bombed my inbox with caps. However, this time, the news — to be fair — could not be more welcome: “145 WOOLWORTHS STORES ARE NOW PLASTIC BAG-FREE.”
Despite a “challenging year”, Woolworths has continued “rolling out its low-cost reusable bag to 120 additional stores”, Peterson’s latest missive claimed. This, as part of the retailer’s “commitment to phase out single-use plastic shopping bags” and reduce its landfill packaging to zero.
Feroz Koor, Woolworths Holdings sustainability group head, chimed in: “We are delighted to be able to take such a significant step forward in the removal of single-use plastic shopping bags from our stores, especially at a time when we have had so many supply uncertainties. The local supplier of our low-cost reusable bag has been severely impacted by Covid-19 lockdown disruptions, which has lost them 692 hours of production time over the last eight months.”
The supplier’s production of reusable alternatives had increased to such an extent that the retailer could now “remove single-use plastic shopping bags from an additional 120 stores”, said Koor. “This is a substantial move to reaching our goal of removing all single-use plastic shopping bags.”
Lorren de Kock, WWF-SA project manager for a circular plastics economy, said it was “great to see Woolworths removing single-use plastic bags from these stores and taking on the task of educating their consumers about adopting more reuse actions in their daily lives and supporting local enterprises”.
She also pointed out it was “important for the consumer to understand that these reusable bags need to be reused to carry groceries or repurposed multiple times and not only used once”.
There you have it, folks. Just in case you were thinking of stashing those reusables in the trash.
Of course, one might say all major retailers in South Africa are late to the game — in these here parts, plastic shopping bags are more common than surviving Trump appointees at the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Yet, credit is due to Woolworths for pushing ahead with its sustainability aims despite the black swan of a year that has swooped down upon industry, the Two Oceans Aquarium’s Hayley McLellan told Our Burning Planet.
A long-standing sustainability campaigner for initiatives such as “Rethink the Bag”, which promotes reusable bags over plastic counterparts, McLellan describes herself as an “environmental change agent”.
“If I think back to 2011, when I launched Rethink the Bag: the late Tom McLaughlin, then sustainability manager for Woolworths, was actually in the room. I was thrilled,” McLellan said. McLaughlin, said to have pioneered the retailer’s “Good Business Journey”, died in 2019. “This conversation has truly come a long way.”
She called the retailer a “leader in reducing plastic shopping bags”, simultaneously acknowledging efforts by grocery retailer Food Lover’s Market to opt for paper-based alternatives.
“The other big brands have some way to go in this regard,” noted McLellan, also known for her work in wildlife conservation, particularly injured penguins. “From an ocean advocate’s perspective, brown bags are better than plastic in the moment, but not if one looks at the entire life cycle analysis. Brown bags have a high carbon footprint and are not considered a long-life carrier bag. People need to be set up for success so that they form reusable habits, using shopping bags built to last.”
Plastic bags were “only the tip of the iceberg”, she added. “The plastic problem does not begin once it lands on a beach, in the ocean and then in a sea creature. It starts in the design stage, where conversations need to be had between designers, brands, consumers, environmentalists and recyclers.”
Being green in a society mostly married to the opposite can be hard; and Woolworths is not out of the plastic woods yet. It has a reputation for fortressing its fresh produce, among others, in non-recyclable plastic packaging.
Plus there are 730 stores scattered throughout the length and breadth of our land, of which 586 still need to free themselves of a wasteful product at odds with a circular economy.
But boosting its plastic bag-free stores to a complement of 145 from just 25 in August is a beginning — and throws down the gauntlet at the doorstep of competitors still lagging behind on this front.
Postscript: Our sources tell us that, for every six-pack punnet of kiwifruit sold at our local Woolies recently, someone had inserted a single Zespri® SunGold kiwifruit, neatly reducing the numbers of fuzzy kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) per pack from six to five. While we want you to know that we see you, Woolworths, we can forgive you this once — especially since no spifes have been spotted anywhere near the kiwifruit section since the November 2019 promotion seemed to have died with a whimper. DM
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
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Re: Plastic and other Environmental Dangerous Waste
South Africa could waste opportunity to take further action on plastic pollution
By Onke Ngcuka• 21 June 2021
Plastic waste clogs a stream running through Masiphumelele in Cape Town. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Nic Bothma)
Plastic pollution is hazardous to land and the oceans, but a draft policy document reveals that the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment is not in favour of a new multilateral environmental agreement on plastic pollution.
A leaked draft policy document reveals that the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment does not support the establishment of a new multilateral environmental agreement on plastic pollution.
Last week, a leaked document, marked confidential, from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) acknowledged the plastic pollution problem, but stops short of joining any further proposed global treaties to deal with this.
The draft paper highlights the DFFE’s position at the Ministerial Conference on Marine Litter and Plastic Pollution that will take place in September.
“At this stage NO decision whatsoever has been taken by the Department on any new international agreement that arises from UNEA [United Nations Environment Assembly] with regard to plastic waste. Leaked draft documents do not represent decisions of the organisation,” the DFFE’s chief director of communications, Albi Modise, told Daily Maverick via email.
Although the DFFE is proposing rejecting an additional treaty, it acknowledged in the draft document that South Africa is the 11th biggest polluter in the world and the third in Africa after Egypt and Nigeria.
Plastic pollution is hazardous to land and the oceans, as plastic tends to be blown into the oceans and broken down into microplastics by seawater.
Often, these toxic microplastics end up being ingested by sea animals, and in turn by humans.
According to the draft document, hesitation to join an additional convention stems from South Africa already being a part of the Basel Convention and the Stockholm Convention. Another concern was the financial strain on African economies, whose challenges have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The draft policy document also argues that:
“I think that it’s worrying that environmental issues are still being approached through a prism of development vs environment; that you have to choose one or the other… ‘Do you want to eat or do you want clean air?’ ” said Prabhat Upadhyaya, a senior policy analyst with the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF-SA).
The Basel Convention’s main objective is controlling movements of hazardous and other waste, while the Stockholm Convention’s main mandate is protecting humans and the environment against organic pollutants.
The draft document states that South Africa should rest assured that, “…there are sufficient efforts being done under the Basel Convention, and also that the Stockholm Convention is adequate to handle other aspects relating to the toxic chemicals found in plastic…”.
Draft RSA Position on the Proposed New Treaty on Plastics
“There’s a flaw in that reasoning, because no treaty addresses the value chain of plastic across its lifecycle… how plastic is produced, essentially from fossils, and then how it’s consumed and how it’s disposed of,” said Upadhyaya.
In the document, the DFFE voices concerns over the Basel Convention not doing enough to provide measurable targets and timelines, which makes tracking progress a challenge. It adds that the Basel Convention is “not a comprehensive waste regime”.
South Africa generates 41kg per capita per year of plastic waste. This is above the global average of 29kg per capita per year, according to the draft document. An estimated 79,000 tonnes of plastic end up in South Africa’s oceans and rivers each year — about 3% of the country’s annual plastic waste. Globally, marine plastic pollution is expected to triple by 2040 if it is not addressed
Greenpeace Africa’s senior climate and energy campaign manager, Happy Khambule, told Daily Maverick that the department is prioritising the needs of the producers of plastic over the environment.
“The producers of waste and packaging have a large role to play in the economy. They provide jobs, they provide money. But they are not taking responsibility for what their products are doing to the environment and to people’s livelihoods,” Khambule said.
South Africa’s plastic industry employed about 60,000 people in 2019 and contributed about R70-million to the country’s economy.
Business Unity South Africa (Busa), the Department of Trade and Industry, and Plastics South Africa were consulted when drafting the document. Busa had requested that the government be mindful of the consequences of signing the treaty.
“While that should not be a reason not to adopt, it is common cause that policy uncertainty and misalignment are inhibitors of growth and development,” the draft document said.
WWF-SA analyst Upadhyaya added that it is a fundamental flaw that South Africa is not aligned with the shift that integrates development and environmental concerns.
Considerations around a new tax on single-use plastics are being made for items such as straws, coffee stirrers, water bottles and most food packaging. The primary focus, however, is increasing the plastic-tax collection and improving waste management infrastructure, the document outlines.
The draft proposal also raised concerns about developed countries not meeting their financial obligations to developing countries to implement multilateral environmental agreements, while developed countries continue to produce toxic chemicals and hazardous waste for products exported to the continent.
South Africa, with 54 other African nations, is part of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment’s Durban Declaration that committed to “a new global agreement on plastic pollution that takes a comprehensive approach to addressing the full lifecycle of plastics”. Other than the declaration, little action seems to have been enforced.
“South Africa does not support the establishment of a new Multilateral Environmental Agreement, but is instead challenging the strengthening of already existent measures in place to reduce plastics, marine plastic litter and microbeads,” the DFFE said in the leaked proposal.
The DFFE told Daily Maverick, “The department is deeply concerned about plastic waste and it is a matter of public record that we have taken a range of measures to combat plastic waste and will continue to focus on this with the greatest diligence.” DM/OBP
By Onke Ngcuka• 21 June 2021
Plastic waste clogs a stream running through Masiphumelele in Cape Town. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Nic Bothma)
Plastic pollution is hazardous to land and the oceans, but a draft policy document reveals that the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment is not in favour of a new multilateral environmental agreement on plastic pollution.
A leaked draft policy document reveals that the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment does not support the establishment of a new multilateral environmental agreement on plastic pollution.
Last week, a leaked document, marked confidential, from the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) acknowledged the plastic pollution problem, but stops short of joining any further proposed global treaties to deal with this.
The draft paper highlights the DFFE’s position at the Ministerial Conference on Marine Litter and Plastic Pollution that will take place in September.
“At this stage NO decision whatsoever has been taken by the Department on any new international agreement that arises from UNEA [United Nations Environment Assembly] with regard to plastic waste. Leaked draft documents do not represent decisions of the organisation,” the DFFE’s chief director of communications, Albi Modise, told Daily Maverick via email.
Although the DFFE is proposing rejecting an additional treaty, it acknowledged in the draft document that South Africa is the 11th biggest polluter in the world and the third in Africa after Egypt and Nigeria.
Plastic pollution is hazardous to land and the oceans, as plastic tends to be blown into the oceans and broken down into microplastics by seawater.
Often, these toxic microplastics end up being ingested by sea animals, and in turn by humans.
According to the draft document, hesitation to join an additional convention stems from South Africa already being a part of the Basel Convention and the Stockholm Convention. Another concern was the financial strain on African economies, whose challenges have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The draft policy document also argues that:
- There would be duplication of efforts, not maximising of already limited resources and not identifying synergies with existing Multilateral Environment Agreements that can address the plastic throughout its life cycle and value chain, marine litter and micro-plastic problem.
- The international donors are the same for all the chemicals and waste MEAs, and possibly others; there would be more intense competition for resources from the same donors. There would be certainly less money available for the Basel, Rotterdam, Stockholm and Minamata Conventions, which list and address highly toxic chemicals that lead to exponentially more serious exposure that one would get from plastic waste alone
“I think that it’s worrying that environmental issues are still being approached through a prism of development vs environment; that you have to choose one or the other… ‘Do you want to eat or do you want clean air?’ ” said Prabhat Upadhyaya, a senior policy analyst with the World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa (WWF-SA).
The Basel Convention’s main objective is controlling movements of hazardous and other waste, while the Stockholm Convention’s main mandate is protecting humans and the environment against organic pollutants.
The draft document states that South Africa should rest assured that, “…there are sufficient efforts being done under the Basel Convention, and also that the Stockholm Convention is adequate to handle other aspects relating to the toxic chemicals found in plastic…”.
Draft RSA Position on the Proposed New Treaty on Plastics
“There’s a flaw in that reasoning, because no treaty addresses the value chain of plastic across its lifecycle… how plastic is produced, essentially from fossils, and then how it’s consumed and how it’s disposed of,” said Upadhyaya.
In the document, the DFFE voices concerns over the Basel Convention not doing enough to provide measurable targets and timelines, which makes tracking progress a challenge. It adds that the Basel Convention is “not a comprehensive waste regime”.
South Africa generates 41kg per capita per year of plastic waste. This is above the global average of 29kg per capita per year, according to the draft document. An estimated 79,000 tonnes of plastic end up in South Africa’s oceans and rivers each year — about 3% of the country’s annual plastic waste. Globally, marine plastic pollution is expected to triple by 2040 if it is not addressed
Greenpeace Africa’s senior climate and energy campaign manager, Happy Khambule, told Daily Maverick that the department is prioritising the needs of the producers of plastic over the environment.
“The producers of waste and packaging have a large role to play in the economy. They provide jobs, they provide money. But they are not taking responsibility for what their products are doing to the environment and to people’s livelihoods,” Khambule said.
South Africa’s plastic industry employed about 60,000 people in 2019 and contributed about R70-million to the country’s economy.
Business Unity South Africa (Busa), the Department of Trade and Industry, and Plastics South Africa were consulted when drafting the document. Busa had requested that the government be mindful of the consequences of signing the treaty.
“While that should not be a reason not to adopt, it is common cause that policy uncertainty and misalignment are inhibitors of growth and development,” the draft document said.
WWF-SA analyst Upadhyaya added that it is a fundamental flaw that South Africa is not aligned with the shift that integrates development and environmental concerns.
Considerations around a new tax on single-use plastics are being made for items such as straws, coffee stirrers, water bottles and most food packaging. The primary focus, however, is increasing the plastic-tax collection and improving waste management infrastructure, the document outlines.
The draft proposal also raised concerns about developed countries not meeting their financial obligations to developing countries to implement multilateral environmental agreements, while developed countries continue to produce toxic chemicals and hazardous waste for products exported to the continent.
South Africa, with 54 other African nations, is part of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment’s Durban Declaration that committed to “a new global agreement on plastic pollution that takes a comprehensive approach to addressing the full lifecycle of plastics”. Other than the declaration, little action seems to have been enforced.
“South Africa does not support the establishment of a new Multilateral Environmental Agreement, but is instead challenging the strengthening of already existent measures in place to reduce plastics, marine plastic litter and microbeads,” the DFFE said in the leaked proposal.
The DFFE told Daily Maverick, “The department is deeply concerned about plastic waste and it is a matter of public record that we have taken a range of measures to combat plastic waste and will continue to focus on this with the greatest diligence.” DM/OBP
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge
The desire for equality must never exceed the demands of knowledge