{"id":127291,"date":"2023-05-24T07:14:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-24T05:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=127291"},"modified":"2023-05-22T08:33:25","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T06:33:25","slug":"un-lays-out-blueprint-to-reduce-plastic-waste-80-by-2040","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/un-lays-out-blueprint-to-reduce-plastic-waste-80-by-2040\/","title":{"rendered":"UN lays out blueprint to reduce plastic waste 80% by 2040"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

The Kenya-based UN body released its analysis of policy options<\/a> to tackle the plastic waste crisis two weeks before countries convene in Paris for a second round of negotiations to craft a global treaty aimed at eliminating plastic waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
“If we follow this roadmap, including in negotiations on the plastic pollution deal, we can deliver major economic, social and environmental wins,\u201d said Inger Andersen, UNEP executive director. [Ivan Radic \/ Flickr<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The report focuses on three main market shifts needed to create a \u201ccircular\u201d economy that keeps produced items in circulation as long as possible: reuse, recycling and reorientation of packaging from plastic to alternative materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we follow this roadmap, including in negotiations on the plastic pollution deal, we can deliver major economic, social and environmental wins,\u201d said Inger Andersen, UNEP executive director<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The treaty negotiations, known as INC2, will take place from May 29 to June 2 and are expected to result in key inputs for the first treaty draft, which needs to be done before the third round of negotiations in Kenya in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNEP estimates that government promotion of reuse options like refillable bottle systems or deposit return schemes could reduce 30% of plastic waste by 2040.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also says recycling could achieve an additional 20% by that year if \u201cit becomes a more stable and profitable venture\u201d and fossil fuel subsidies are removed, and that the replacement of products like plastics wraps and sachets with compostable materials could yield an additional 17% reduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Countries have different approaches to tackling plastic waste. Some major plastic producing countries like the United States and Saudi Arabia prefer a system of national strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some that have formed a \u201cHigh Ambition Coalition,\u201d comprising Norway, Rwanda, New Zealand, the European Union and others, have called for top-down approach where global targets are set to reduce virgin plastic production and eliminate fossil fuel subsidies, among other measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some environmental campaigners on Tuesday called out UNEP for promoting the practice of burning plastic waste in cement kilns or incinerators for addressing plastic waste that cannot be recycled. A 2021 Reuters investigation found that some of the world\u2019s biggest consumer brands have funded projects to send their plastic waste to cement kilns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UNEP said given the short timeline between now and 2040, \u201csub-optimal solutions\u201d will need to be used to deal with that waste though further study was needed to weigh the impacts of increased greenhouse gas emissions or air toxics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot only does this pose a grave climate and public health threat, it also undermines the primary goal of the global plastic treaty \u2013putting a cap on plastic production.\u201d said Dr. Neil Tangri, Policy Director at Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kenya-based UN body released its analysis of policy options to tackle the plastic waste crisis two weeks before countries convene in Paris for a second round of negotiations to craft a global treaty aimed at eliminating plastic waste. The report focuses on three main market shifts needed to create a \u201ccircular\u201d economy that keeps produced items […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Countries can reduce plastic pollution by 80% by 2040 using existing technologies and making major policy changes, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a report on Monday (15 May)","footnotes":""},"categories":[17143],"tags":[10416,7105,14462,10453],"supplier":[17652,1832],"class_list":["post-127291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recycling","tag-circulareconomy","tag-packaging","tag-plasticwaste","tag-recycling","supplier-global-alliance-for-incinerator-alternatives","supplier-united-nations-environment-programme-unep"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127291\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127291"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=127291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}