When UN negotiations over a global agreement on plastic waste convene for a second session this spring, the European Union will bring evidence that it practices what it preaches.
“The European Union are playing a leading role in advocating for a high-ambition, legally binding global agreement under the UN process to end plastic pollution,” said Steve Fletcher, director of the Global Plastics Policy Centre at the UK’s University of Portsmouth. “The current proposals are aligned with that high ambition that they want to see developed through the treaty process.”
Into this maelstrom comes the EU. Although its vision for a UN plastics agreement will have to be reconciled with that of more than 100 other countries, the bloc is a powerful influence. Its decisions have a wider impact than its borders, both on the companies that supply EU consumers and on the governments of the nations around it.
The EU isn’t the only governing body making moves on plastic, and the new world it seeks to encourage isn’t entirely novel. In some South American countries, for example, Coca-Cola sells over 60 percent of its products in refillable packaging. Many other nations were ahead on restricting single-use plastic bags: Bangladesh was the first to introduce a total ban in 2002, while the EU’s directive only encourages reductions.
Public opinion is also providing a tailwind, Sinkevičius said, and solutions seen to be working in one place can provide fodder for citizens of other countries looking to apply pressure to their governments. Already, some EU members are racing ahead: In France, a ban on plastic packaging for produce and in fast food restaurants took effect this year.
That urgency is part of why Sinkevičius is trying to sell the plastics crackdown as a positive for European business, which can claim first-mover advantage in areas like reusability. “The moment you ship your waste away, you kill any innovation,” he said. “We’re talking not only about reuse—we’re also talking about longer-lasting plastics that can be used for a long time. I think that would be something that would be very much appreciated across the world.
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