Plastic: not fantastic... how to reduce 80% of our plastic use by 2040?
The UNEP FI just published an excellent report: 'Turning off the tap: How the world can end plastic pollution and create circular economy?'
The What:
Examining the economic & business models needed to address the impacts of the plastics economy;
Proposing a systems change – underpinned by the necessary regulatory instruments – to address the causes of plastic pollution, combining reducing problematic, unnecessary plastic use with a market transformation towards circularity in plastics.
The report aims to provide answer to the question, 'how to realize the goal of ending plastic pollution', decided by all UN Member States at the 5th United Nations Environment Assembly in March 2022.
Possible Plastic Future: how to change the system scenario
Source: UNEP modelling building (2022)
The How
Three Key Shifts need to be accelerated:
Reuse: Transformation of the “throwaway economy” to a “reuse society” where reusing plastic products makes more economic sense than throwing them away.
Recycle: Creating a fiscal framework that enables recycled materials to compete on a level playing field with virgin material, ensuring that recycling becomes more profitable.
Reorient & diversify: Shifting the market towards sustainable plastic alternatives to enable safe & sustainable substitutions, which will require a shift in consumer demand, regulatory frameworks & costs, and which displace rather than reduce impacts.
The Bottom Line:
Only a systemic shift from a linear to a new circular plastics economy can substantively tackle the global plastic pollution crisis. Problematic & unnecessary plastics have to be eliminated, coupled with the acceleration of reuse, recycling, reorientation & diversification.
The market transformation presents significant economic opportunities: net creation of 700,000 additional jobs by 2040, reducing overall costs both for the private sector & governments.
In addition to the market transformation, there is an urgent need to deal with the legacy – to collect & dispose responsibly the plastics that cannot be recycled, and/or which are already polluting the environment.
There is a need for ambitious, timely policy & legislative changes, in order to unlock new business models, infrastructure investments & new funding mechanisms. A global approach would be undoubtably even more beneficial.
