1,400 representatives from 178 countries went to Busan, South Korea to seek to reach a global treaty to alleviate plastic pollution. Unfortunately, despite the efforts of the media, researchers, government agencies, leaders, scientists, academics, non-governmental organizations, foundations and various civil associations, it was not possible to reach consensus and reach a final document.
2024 then closes as a year of serious setbacks in environmental matters, pollution, sustainability, climate apocalypse and a serious problem in water, natural disasters and their social, economic, political and health consequences.
It is estimated that since the 1950s, some 10 billion tons of plastics have been produced in the world; 80% has ended up in the sea, rivers, lagoons and open dumps, less than 10% has been recycled and the rest ends up incinerated or buried.
The problem is becoming increasingly serious because plastics are becoming stronger, more resistant, more durable, lighter, more flexible, with colors and characteristics that involve the use of very harmful chemicals and make it much more complicated to process or discard them.
As it is, millions of tons of plastics will be on earth for hundreds, thousands of years, without much being done precisely without a binding agreement and the necessary resources to address this issue.
During the meeting, economic interests collided, opposing positions were presented and the best political strategies of each counterpart were put forward. On the one hand, those who affirm that the current world is inconceivable without plastics, progress is unstoppable and there is no turning back.
For example, e-commerce could not exist without plastics. Millions of goods and products are – in the end – products based on polymers. Clothing, accessories, packaging, toys, all kinds of utensils, gadgets, electronics, there is almost nothing that does not also require wrapping, packaging, adhesive tapes, labels, containers, pallets, boxes, plastic covers – precisely.
Every day about 800 million PET bottles of water, soft drinks, and commercial beverages are consumed; some 200 billion pieces of various food packaging, candy wrappers, cups, containers, bags, cutlery, tablecloths, towels, all do their part to expand the presence of plastic in our lives.
Millions of companies, entire industries and thousands of human beings depend on the plastic economy. Electronics, food, pharmacy, chemistry, textiles, fashion, packaging, logistics, oil, fishing, agriculture, livestock, mining, all require these materials and it would be very expensive and complex to replace them.
Faced with these arguments, environmentalists could do little. The interests of oil-producing countries operated against them, crushing every progress towards a global agreement, limiting their production, much less banning single-use plastics.
I don’t care what each milligram, each particle of microplastics does to the air, soil and water; the toxicity of the emissions generated by burning plastic trash; clandestine dumping sites that use child labor to collect, classify and “recycle” materials, exposed to extremely dangerous contamination.
Millions of tons of waste circulate around the world and end up – illegally – in the sea, the interests at stake did not admit regulations, supervision or even quantification or statistical reports of the dimensions of these practices.
The clothes, cars, cell phones, chargers, computers, video games, discs, speakers, accessories, screens, cables, headphones, furniture that you discarded will end up in some landfill in a certain underdeveloped country where they will be burned, divided and/or broken to get a few out of them. cents on the dollar, but accumulating thousands of tons that will remain unchanged for a long period of time.
No warning calls, clamor and cases described in the conferences were of much use; coastal areas invaded by millions of waste from nets, buoys, traps, cages, boxes, packaging, ropes, lures, bottles, lids, clothing, footwear, medical supplies.
The crude and bloody reality of what were once great natural paradises, every vestige of extinct life, hundreds of fishing boats breaking down next to mountains of garbage.
None of that counted, the plastics industry is worth billions of dollars and it is not going to waste a second to save a few species. Not even the sick and the collateral victims of chemical contamination moved such powerful interests one iota.
Aside from the drama, with every second the cause becomes more difficult, the task more complex and it is much more expensive to address it.
The drivers of this dynamic are consumerism scheduled expiration (products will stop working, fail after a duration predetermined by the manufacturer); of scheduled obsolescence (they will inevitably cease to be updatable and it will fill us with anxiety to own the latest version); of useless utilities (in the end they will end up in the trash because they are mainly unnecessary, superfluous, banal) and temporary satisfiers (Once you start using them they start to stop being attractive, you will need to continue consuming them to maintain that possession reward).
Solutions exist, they are very complex, but there are great advances. Just a transition from single-use to recyclable and compostable plastics can save millions of emissions and waste daily. We will talk about many others soon.
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