Plastics groups urge UN treaty negotiators for balanced approach

As the plastics treaty talks enter a key phase, industry groups are renewing calls for countries to consider the benefits of their materials and to reject actions like plastics taxes or overly strict regulation of chemical health risks.

A group of bottled water makers, for example, is telling the United Nations that PET bottles have lower environmental effects than other packaging types, even as they endorsed more regulation to improve recycling rates.

As well, an organization of Latin American plastics makers said the agreement should not regulate additives and their health risks — contrary to demands from scientists and others — saying that additives are better dealt with as part of existing global chemical frameworks.

The comments came at online U.N. forums ahead of the reopening of the talks April 23 in Ottawa, Ontario, in what's expected to be the last round before a final session planned in South Korea in November.

But many environmental groups were pushing U.N. diplomats to take more aggressive actions.

One said it was modeling how taxes on plastics could close an estimated $500 billion gap in paying for better waste management and plastics pollution mitigation worldwide, while others urged caps on virgin resin production and said the treaty should include phasedowns of toxic chemicals in polymers.

One smaller industry sector said the treaty should help society move away from fossil-based plastics.

A group of bioplastics makers said the treaty should more explicitly recognize alternatives to traditional petrochemical plastics, and they urged diplomats to create a formal science advisory body to look at alternatives.

Everyone, it seemed, was arguing that science would be on their side.

The International Bottled Water Association, for example, said negotiators should not force moves away from PET packaging for their products, saying that plastic water bottle production has lower greenhouse gas, water use and energy consumption than alternatives.

"As we are all serious about reducing climate change, the final treaty should recognize the mounting science showing a greater environmental impact if other forms of packaging are used and thus should not force the industry to move to other forms of packaging," said Cory Martin, vice president of government relations at the IBWA in Alexandria, Va.

Martin, however, said the industry backs measures in the treaty like extended producer responsibility and bottle deposit systems to boost recycling, even as he cautioned diplomats against taxing plastics.

"There's been some discussion in the past about taxes to fund programs stemming from the treaty," Martin said. "We strongly disagree with any policy that taxes beverage containers. Attacks on plastics that are easily recycled, like PET bottle water containers, do not foster a circular economy and should be avoided."

But one group that's previously advocated for plastics taxes, the Minderoo Foundation, told U.N. officials it was preparing new modeling on how a "small fee" on plastics production levied on large producers could raise much-needed funds.

"There's a big financing gap at the moment, particularly in developing countries," said Marcus Gover, director of plastics at Minderoo. "We think it's potentially as big as $500 billion between now and 2040, to pay for better waste management upstream, a just transition, legacy plastic pollution and health impacts."

He pointed to a report from the Nordic Council that outlined 15 policy actions that could reduce virgin plastic use by 30 percent, and said a fee targeted at about 100 of the biggest plastic producers could fund improvements under the treaty.

"With so much plastic being produced, a small fee could really, really finance the solutions to make this treaty really ambitious and to help it have the impact we know it can have," he said.

Groups also took different positions around monitoring chemical health within plastics, with one industry group from Latin America telling diplomats that should not be part of any agreement.

"We believe that the additives and chemicals regulations should be outside of the plastics agreement and should be regulated through chemical management systems that allows for identification of hazards and risks at the national level, as recommended by the new global chemicals framework," said Camila Hubner Barcellos, regulatory and sustainability affairs manager with the Brazilian Chemical Industry Association.

Barcellos said the industry was, however, developing a database for regulators "to have greater transparency around the use of plastics additives and the potential health risks."

A worldwide body of plastics associations, the Global Partnership for Plastics Circularity, also pointed to that additives database in an April 15 statement outlining industry goals for the Canada talks.

"Plastic additives are already among the most regulated chemicals today, and we are helping countries with their access, oversight and enforcement by providing a global plastic additives database," said Karen McKee, president of the International Council of Chemical Associations and an executive at ExxonMobil Chemical Co.

"The database will allow ease of access to countries by aggregating science-based information about plastic additives in commerce to improve transparency and help governments make informed, risk-based decisions."

But other groups, including the Endocrine Society and research organization Project Tendr, said the treaty needs to include lists of chemicals of concerns to be phased down within plastics products.

It would be "critical" to include such lists within core obligations of the treaty, particularly for reducing exposures to endocrine-disrupting chemicals within plastics, said Marina Olga Fernandez, an Argentinian researcher representing the Endocrine Society.

"Decades of peer-reviewed research has demonstrated that these chemicals, including bisphenols, phthalates and PFAS, are pervasive and linked to serious adverse impacts on endocrine systems, including many diseases," she said.

"It is therefore critical that the core obligations include banning, phasing out or reducing the use of avoidable plastic products and chemicals of concerns."

As well, a speaker from Project Tendr, which studies toxic chemical exposures in children, told the U.N. that it would be distributing a briefing paper at the Canada talks on risks of childhood exposure to chemicals in plastics.

"Project Tendr's experts are deeply concerned with rapidly mounting evidence showing that plastics and toxic chemicals added to plastics are harming children's developing brains and contributing to learning, attention and behavioral disorders," said Maureen Swanson, co-director of the group, which includes more than 50 scientists, health professionals and advocates.

Industry groups urged diplomats to consider the benefits of plastics and push for an agreement that sends investment signals to companies.

The Vinyl Institute of Canada, for example, urged diplomats to consider the widespread uses of vinyl in everyday life, including in health care applications like blood bags and tubing, and in drinking water pipes.

"For many of those essential products, there are few or sometimes no viable alternatives," said Pierre Balenger, a representative of VIC.

Larger plastics industry groups said it was important for countries at the Canada round to make progress and identify areas of agreement ahead of the final planned negotiating session later this year, in South Korea.

Benny Mermans, chair of the World Plastics Council and an executive at Chevron Phillips Chemical Co., said an agreement could send signals to industry to invest in scaling up the supply of greener plastics.

"An effective global agreement will accelerate this progress by creating demand signals that incentivize the billions of dollars of additional investment required to tackle plastic pollution," he said, in a statement the group distributed. "This is why we urge everyone, including our industry and governments, to redouble our efforts and work even more closely together to find solutions in Ottawa."

At the U.N. forum, another official with the ICCA said the treaty should promote financing options to extend waste management to the 3 billion people worldwide who currently lack access, and adopt a broad approach that includes technologies like chemical recycling.

"For the agreement to end plastic pollution while maintaining the benefits of plastics, it should promote financing options and promote much-needed infrastructure development," said Stewart Harris, a treaty negotiator with the American Chemistry Council and ICCA delegate.

"We must use an all-of-the-above strategy that includes designing raw materials and products for circularity, deploying reuse and refill models, and leveraging innovations in processing and recycling plastics, including mechanical recycling, which should be prioritized, and chemical recycling, when appropriate," he said.

One smaller bioplastics organization urged U.N. officials to think bigger and explicitly recognize the role of materials like bio-based and biodegradable PHA plastics can play in transitioning the industry.

"PHAs are very versatile thermoplastic materials, which can directly replace conventional plastics," said Maximilian Lackner, a treaty delegate and science adviser to the group Go PHA, which represents makers of polyhydroxyalkanoate plastic.

He said Go PHA wants the U.N. to create a science advisory board to look at alternatives.

"They can enable local value creation and avoid the tremendous side effects of plastics, which we are just beginning to learn about and understand the full implications of, for nature and for humans," he said. "Go PHA calls on the United Nations to recognize the vital role of safe and environmentally sound alternatives."