[Campaign group says plastics are incompatible with circular
economy as countries prepare for treaty talks ]
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RECYCLED PLASTIC CAN BE MORE TOXIC AND IS NO FIX FOR POLLUTION,
GREENPEACE WARNS  
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Damien Gayle
May 24, 2023
The Guardian
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_ Campaign group says plastics are incompatible with circular economy
as countries prepare for treaty talks _

Representatives from 173 countries last year agreed to develop a
legally binding treaty covering the ‘full lifecycle’ of plastics
from production to disposal. , (Image: Muntaka Chasant (Ghana) via
UN.org)

 

Recycling plastic can make it more toxic and should not be considered
a solution to the pollution crisis, Greenpeace
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before the latest round of negotiations for an international plastics
treaty.

“Plastics are inherently incompatible with a circular economy,”
the global environmental network said in a report that brings together
research showing recycled plastics are more toxic than their virgin
constituents.

The report, timed to coincide with the beginning of fresh talks for a
potential global plastics treaty, comes as separate research has found
breaking down plastics for recycling scatters microplastic pollution
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the environment.

Representatives from 173 countries last year
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to develop a legally binding treaty covering the “full lifecycle”
of plastics from production to disposal, to be negotiated over the
next two years.

Next week they are due to meet in Paris, for talks that have already
been criticised for excluding communities in developing countries
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by dumping and burning of plastic waste, as well as marginalised
waste pickers
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who are crucial to recycling.

Without those voices, the fear is that negotiations will be swayed by
corporate interests. “The plastics industry – including fossil
fuel, petrochemical and consumer goods companies – continues to put
forward plastic recycling as the solution to the plastic pollution
crisis,” said Graham Forbes, who leads Greenpeace USA’s global
plastics campaign.

“But … the toxicity of plastic actually increases with recycling.
Plastics have no place in a circular economy and it’s clear that the
only real solution to ending plastic pollution is to massively reduce
plastic production.”

Since the 1950s about 8bn tonnes of plastic has been produced. The
Greenpeace report catalogues peer-reviewed research and international
studies showing not only that just a tiny proportion (9%) of plastics
are ever recycled, but also that those that are end up with higher
concentrations of toxic chemicals, multiplying their potential harm to
human, animal and environmental health.

Recycled plastics, the report says, often contain higher levels of
chemicals such as toxic flame retardants, benzene and other
carcinogens, environmental pollutants including brominated and
chlorinated dioxins, and numerous endocrine disruptors that can cause
changes to the body’s natural hormone levels.

Waste plastics earmarked for recycling are typically exported from
high-income countries to poorer parts of the world

Dr Therese Karlsson, a science adviser with the International
Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), said: “Plastics are made with
toxic chemicals, and these chemicals don’t simply go away when
plastics are recycled. The science clearly shows that plastic
recycling is a toxic endeavour with threats to our health and the
environment all along the recycling stream.

“Simply put, plastic poisons the circular economy and our bodies,
and pollutes air, water and food. We should not recycle plastics that
contain toxic chemicals. Real solutions to the plastics crisis will
require global controls on chemicals in plastics and significant
reductions in plastic production.”

Plastic production is forecast to triple by 2060. Greenpeace said any
global plastics treaty must achieve immediate significant reductions
in plastic production, as a first step on a pathway to the total
elimination of the manufacture of virgin plastic.

Those plastics that remain must be reused as far as possible, while
waste disposal technologies are developed that do not involve simply
burning it or burying it, Greenpeace said.

_Damien Gayle is an environment correspondent for the Guardian.
Twitter @damiengayle [[link removed]]. Click here
[[link removed]] for
Damien Gayle's public key_

 

* plastics
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* recycling
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* toxicity
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