Nearly all countries are in agreement to stem the flow of plastic waste in poor countries | Environment

Almost every country in the world has agreed to an agreement to limit shipments of plastic waste that is difficult to recycle to the poorest countries, the UN said Friday.

Exporting countries – including the United States – will now need to obtain consent from countries receiving contaminated, mixed or non-recyclable plastic waste. At the present time, the United States and other countries can send low-quality plastic waste to private entities in developing countries without obtaining the approval of their governments.

Since China stopped accepting recycling in the United States, activists claim to have found an accumulation of plastic waste in developing countries. The Global Alliance for Crash Source Research (Gaia), a partner in the agreement, said it found villages in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia that "have become dumpsites in the course of a year" .

"We were finding that waste from the United States had just been piled up in villages in those countries that were once essentially agricultural communities," Gaia spokeswoman Claire Arkin said.

The legally binding framework came at the end of a two-week meeting on UN-supported conventions on plastic waste and toxic and dangerous chemicals that threaten the seas and creatures of the planet. The pact is an amendment to the Basel Convention. The United States was not a party to this convention, so they did not vote, but the meeting said their country was against the change, saying officials did not understand the implications. that it would have on the trade of plastic waste.

Plastic debris clutters immaculate lands, floating in huge masses in the oceans, entangling animals and endangering wildlife. Less valuable and more difficult to recycle, the plastic will probably end up being discarded rather than transformed into a new product. The agreement concerns products used in a wide range of sectors, such as health care, technology, aerospace, fashion, food and beverages.

Rolph Payet, of the United Nations Environment Program, described the agreement as a "landmark" agreement signed by 187 countries in Geneva, Switzerland, under the terms of the convention. Countries will need to monitor the destination of plastic waste when they leave their borders. Payet said the negotiations, which began 11 days ago and brought together 1,400 delegates, went much further than expected.

He compared plastic pollution to an "epidemic", with "about 100 million tons of plastic [110m US tons] It is now found in the oceans, 80 to 90% of which come from sources on land.

The Basel Convention sets rules for first-world countries that ship hazardous waste to less wealthy countries. Proponents say the amendment will make global plastic waste trade more transparent and better regulated, while protecting people and the environment.

The United States and other countries will no longer be able to send plastic waste to developing countries that are part of the Basel Convention and are not part of the Cooperation Organization. and economic development, explained a press release from leading advocacy organizations.

Officials attributed this progress in part to a growing public awareness – reinforced by documentary films of British naturalist Sir David Attenborough and others – on the dangers of plastic pollution, especially for life. Marine.

"These were these iconic images of the dead albatross chicks in the Pacific Islands with their open stomachs and all the recognizable plastic objects inside, and more recently, we discovered that the nano Particles crossed the blood-brain barrier and we were able to prove that the plastic is in us, "said Paul Rose, National Geographic's" Immaculate Seas "expedition expedition leader to protect the oceans.

Recent images showing dead whales washing themselves with hundreds of pounds of plastic waste in the stomach have also shocked the public. A new online petition called "Stop Plastic Immersion in Paradise!" Has attracted close to one million signatures over the past week.

The new rules will take a year to come into force.

Von Hernandez, global coordinator of Break Free from Plastic, said the agreement was "a critical first step towards ending the use of developing countries as a dump for the world's plastic waste, particularly from countries around the world. rich".

Marco Lambertini, CEO of WWF International, a charity dedicated to protecting the environment and protecting wildlife, said the agreement was a positive step and that for too long rich countries have abandoned the responsibility for huge amounts of plastic waste.

"However, this is only part of the way. What we – and the planet – need is a global treaty to deal with the global plastic crisis, "said Lambertini.