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href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/11/26/opinion/world-cant-recycle-its-way-out-plastics-crisis/">bostonglobe.com</a>
<h1 class="reader-title">The world can’t recycle its way out of
the plastics crisis</h1>
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<p><span>There are an estimated <a
href="https://oceanliteracy.unesco.org/plastic-pollution-ocean/"
target="_blank">50 trillion to 75 trillion</a>
plastic particles in the world’s oceans and another 8
million to 10 million tons are added every year, with
catastrophic impacts on <a
href="https://ocean.si.edu/conservation/pollution/marine-plastics"
target="_blank">marine wildlife and ecosystems</a>.
Damage to these ecosystems from plastic pollution
causes an estimated <a
href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X19302061."
target="_blank">$500 billion to $2.5 trillion</a> a
year in economic losses. But the costs don’t stop at
the shoreline. Deloitte estimates that in North
America alone plastic pollution in rivers and streams
costs <a
href="https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/nl/Documents/strategy-analytics-and-ma/deloitte-nl-strategy-analytics-and-ma-the-price-tag-of-plastic-pollution.pdf"
target="_blank">up to $600 million per year</a>.</span></p>
<div><br>
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<p><span>Nor do impacts end at the waters’ edge. Plastics
contaminate <a
href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33355482/%20https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/EHP7171"
target="_blank">commercially harvested fish and
shellfish</a>, <a
href="https://news.stanford.edu/2021/02/09/plastic-ingestion-fish-growing-problem/"
target="_blank">fishmeal</a> fed to animals, <a
href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/12/1107342"
target="_blank">agricultural soils and food crops</a>,
<a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/06/plastic-fibres-found-tap-water-around-world-study-reveals"
target="_blank">tap</a> and <a
href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2018/03/16/study-finds-microplastics-in-93-percent-of-bottled-water-infographic/?sh=685349e473fa"
target="_blank">bottled water</a>, and the <a
href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/13/world/atmospheric-plastics-study-intl-hnk-scli-scn/index.html"
target="_blank">air we breathe</a>. An unfortunate
but inevitable consequence of this pervasive pollution
is that plastics are also showing up in human bodies:
in our <a
href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-microplastics-idUSKCN1VN23O"
target="_blank">waste</a>, <a
href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34492918/"
target="_blank">lungs</a>, <a
href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/microplastics-detected-in-human-blood-180979826/"
target="_blank">blood</a>, even in the <a
href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969722061599"
target="_blank">placenta</a> of pregnant people. An
unknown but potentially enormous <a
href="https://cen.acs.org/environment/Inventory-finds-10000-chemicals-used/99/i25"
target="_blank">array of toxic chemicals</a> can <a
href="https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Plastic-and-Health-The-Hidden-Costs-of-a-Plastic-Planet-February-2019.pdf"
target="_blank">enter the human body</a> via these
plastics.</span></p>
<p><span>But the volume of toxins leaching from plastic
products and particles is dwarfed by the pollutants
being released into communities where plastics and
petrochemicals are made, and where plastic’s oil and
gas feedstocks are pumped from the ground. The risks
from this pervasive pollution are particularly acute
for the <a
href="https://www.ciel.org/reports/plastic-health-the-hidden-costs-of-a-plastic-planet-may-2019/"
target="_blank">communities that live on the fence
lines</a> of these facilities and the front lines of
the <a
href="https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Fueling-Plastics-How-Fracked-Gas-Cheap-Oil-and-Unburnable-Coal-are-Driving-the-Plastics-Boom.pdf"
target="_blank">ongoing buildout of plastic and
petrochemical infrastructure</a>.</span></p>
<p><span>That buildout poses risks not only for the
environment and human health, but for the global
climate. Because 99 percent of what goes into plastic
is fossil fuels, <a
href="https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Fueling-Plastics-Fossils-Plastics-Petrochemical-Feedstocks.pdf"
target="_blank">plastics are essentially fossil
fuels</a> in another form. As demand for oil and gas
in energy and transport declines, <a
href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/29/how-the-fossil-fuel-industry-is-pushing-plastics-on-the-world-.html"
target="_blank">fossil fuel producers are looking to
plastics</a> as a way to continue profiting from
fossil fuels. The International Energy Agency projects
that <a
href="https://www.icis.com/explore/resources/news/2021/10/13/10694093/petrochemicals-to-capture-more-than-50-of-crude-demand-by-2050-iea/"
target="_blank">by 2050</a>, more than half of all
oil and gas will be used to make plastics and
petrochemicals. This has enormous <a
href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969721054693?via%3Dihub"
target="_blank">climate impacts</a>. On our present
trajectory, plastic production, use, and disposal
could emit <a
href="https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Plastic-and-Climate-Executive-Summary-2019.pdf"
target="_blank">56 gigatons of CO2 by 2050</a> —
equivalent to 13 percent of the earth’s entire
remaining carbon budget that keeps warming below the
critical 1.5 degree Celsius threshold. These impacts
would be compounded if plastic pollution disrupts
natural carbon sinks in the <a
href="https://re.public.polimi.it/retrieve/e0c31c12-5316-4599-e053-1705fe0aef77/%20MP_carbon_export.pdf"
target="_blank">ocean</a> and <a
href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001130"
target="_blank">soils</a>. Accordingly, the plastics
treaty is being hailed as the “<a
href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/03/climate-crisis-un-agrees-to-develop-treaty-to-end-plastic-pollution.html"
target="_blank">most important climate deal</a>”
since the Paris Agreement.</span></p>
<p><span>The scale, scope, and diversity of these impacts
explain why negotiators for the new plastics treaty
are mandated to address not just plastic waste but the
entire lifecycle of plastics, <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/02/climate/global-plastics-recycling-treaty.html"
target="_blank">including the production</a> that
drives plastic pollution in all its forms, and why
that mandate requires binding — not just voluntary —
commitments. Put simply, the world cannot recycle its
way out of the plastics crisis.</span></p>
<p><span>Last month, Greenpeace documented that <a
href="https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/new-greenpeace-report-plastic-recycling-is-a-dead-end-street-year-after-year-plastic-recycling-declines-even-as-plastic-waste-increases/"
target="_blank">less than 5 percent of all plastics
used and discarded in the United States</a> each
year are actually recycled. It found that for all but
a small subset of plastic products, the real recycling
rates are even lower. The Greenpeace investigation
proves yet again that for most products and for most
communities, plastic recycling is <a
href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/10/28/science/plastic-recycling-is-myth-study-says/"
target="_blank">simply a myth</a>.</span></p>
<p><span>But widespread belief in that myth is not an
accident. The plastics industry has <a
href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/plastic-problem-recycling-myth-big-oil-950957/"
target="_blank">long been aware</a> that plastic
recycling does not work at any meaningful scale, yet
continues to <a
href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled"
target="_blank">promote it as a solution</a> to the
plastic crisis.</span></p>
<p><span>If this story sounds familiar, it should.</span></p>
<p><span>Massachusetts was among the first states to
launch an <a
href="https://www.mass.gov/lists/attorney-generals-office-exxon-investigation"
target="_blank">investigation</a> into the oil
industry’s role in the accelerating climate crisis.
That investigation led the state to <a
href="https://www.mass.gov/news/ag-healey-sues-exxon-for-deceiving-massachusetts-consumers-and-investors"
target="_blank">sue ExxonMobil</a> for misleading
the public and investors about the climate risks
inherent in its fossil fuel products. In April,
California launched a similar investigation into the
role of plastic producers in the plastic crisis,
beginning with a <a
href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-announces-investigation-fossil-fuel-and-petrochemical"
target="_blank">subpoena to Exxon</a>, also a
leading plastic producer. A parallel investigation by
Massachusetts could examine the impacts of industry
greenwashing on the state, even as legislators advance
efforts to address the plastic crisis at <a
href="https://malegislature.gov/Bills/192/S2896"
target="_blank">state</a> and <a
href="https://www.sierraclub.org/massachusetts/blog/2022/01/Mass-local-plastics-laws"
target="_blank">local</a> levels.</span></p>
<p><span>But just as confronting climate change demands
coordinated national and global action, so too does
confronting the plastic crisis. Senators Elizabeth
Warren and Ed Markey have cosponsored the <a
href="https://www.merkley.senate.gov/news/press-releases/merkley-lowenthal-lead-introduction-of-congress-most-comprehensive-plan-to-protect-americans-health-from-growing-plastic-pollution-crisis-2021"
target="_blank">Break Free from Plastic Pollution
Act</a>, which would represent a vital first step in
a national response to plastics pollution.</span></p>
<p><span>Having failed to learn the lessons from 30 years
of failed climate negotiations, the United States is
actively promoting the Paris Agreement <a
href="https://www.state.gov/remarks-at-the-high-level-roundtable-on-financing-plastics-circularity-at-stockholm50/"
target="_blank">as a model</a> for the plastic
negotiations. Rather than seek ambitious action to
confront plastic production, US negotiators are
calling for <a
href="https://apps1.unep.org/resolutions/uploads/usa.pdf"
target="_blank">voluntary commitments, a major focus
on recycling, and an approach that puts plastic
producers at the negotiating table</a> with the
countries and communities plagued by plastic
pollution. It is also <a
href="https://www.reuters.com/world/exclusive-us-seeks-allies-split-emerges-over-global-plastics-pollution-treaty-2022-09-27/"
target="_blank">spearheading a coalition</a> of
countries seeking to lower ambition for the plastics
treaty. This approach has failed in the fight against
fossil fuel-driven climate change. And people around
the world are living with the accelerating
consequences.</span></p>
<p><span>Markey sits on three Senate committees that will
oversee US engagement in these negotiations, including
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As a major
coastal state whose people and economy will be
affected by the success or failure of the plastic
treaty, Massachusetts has a big stake in getting it
right. The people of Massachusetts have proven that
they are ready to confront corporate deception and
demand strong action to confront the climate crisis
and the rising impacts of climate change, and have
shown they are prepared to act on the root causes of
the plastic crisis as well. They should expect nothing
less from the government that represents them before
the international community.</span></p>
<p><span>Negotiators should abandon the misplaced trust in
the fossil fuel and plastics industry to help solve
the problems its products create and its profits
demand. The world missed that opportunity at the
climate talks. It shouldn’t miss it again on plastics.</span></p>
<p><span><i>Carroll Muffett is president of the Center for
International Environmental Law.</i></span></p>
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