UN experts warn of “toxic tidal wave” as plastic pollutes environment
United Nations
The world must beat the “toxic tidal wave” of plastic polluted that threatens human rights, Un experts said Friday, and called for putting rights at the center of the international treaty on plastic pollution currently under negotiation.
The appeal comes ahead of the World Environment Day on June 5.
“Plastic production has increased exponentially over recent decades and today the world is generating 400 million tonnes of plastic waste yearly,” said David R. Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, and Marcos Orellana, Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights.
The experts outlined how all stages of the” plastic cycle” are harmful to people’s rights to a healthy environment, life, health, food, water and an adequate standard of living.
Plastic production releases hazardous substances and almost exclusively relies on fossil fuels, and plastic itself contains toxic chemicals which put humans and nature at risk. Furthermore, 85 per cent of single use plastics end up in landfills or dumped in the environment.
Meanwhile, incineration, recycling and other “false and misleading solutions” only aggravated the threat, they added, noting that “plastic, microplastic and the hazardous substances they contain can be found in the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe.”
Negotiations continued this week in Paris, following on from an initial session held last year in Uruguay.
Speaking during the opening on Monday, UNEP chief Inger Andersen bluntly stated that “we cannot recycle our way out of this mess”, adding that “only elimination, reduction, a full life-cycle approach, transparency and a just transition can bring success”.
Sources & Courtesy: APP