UN conference seeks to reduce plastic pollution in the seas

GENEVA: Proposals to prevent plastic waste from being dumped in seas are on the table of a UN environmental conference that started on Monday in Geneva. Up to 90 per cent of the estimated 100 million tonnes of plastic that are polluting the seas come from land-based sources, according to the UN secretariat that manages several UN treaties on hazardous waste and chemicals. In the two-week meeting, government representatives will decide whether to adopt amendments to better regulate plastic waste trade, to make sure the materials end up in recycling rather than as litter.

In addition, governments are mulling proposals that would oblige them to produce as little waste as possible, and to manage used plastic in an environmentally sound manner. Germany is aiming at an international ban on the export of unsorted and hard-to-recycle plastic waste, Environment Minister Svenja Schulze said ahead of the talks in Geneva. “There is a problem with unsorted and impure plastic compounds that illicitly end up in the environment in developing countries,” she said. Whereas exports of this nature are permitted only for recycling purposes, research by organisations like Greenpeace has shown that unsorted and hard-to-recycle mixed plastics are polluting the environment in these countries. — DPA