Plastic and other Environmental Dangerous Waste

[Lisbeth]

V&A Waterfront’s wildlife heroes saving Cape fur seals one plastic noose at a time


The king of the deck. (Photo: Don Pinnock)

By Don Pinnock | 03 May 2022

For seals, plastic is a plaything – but it can become a circle of death. And that’s when the V&A Waterfront’s desnagging team swings into action.
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Each morning, before the sun peeps over the Cape Fold Mountains, Brett Glasby begins his patrol of Cape Town’s Waterfront jetties. He carries a long pole with a hooked knife at the tip and he’s hunting for plastic. Not just any plastic, but jetsam from the fishing industry that slips noose-like around the necks and bodies of seals. Sadly, there’s no shortage of it.

Seals don’t enjoy prodding by humans, but after many years of practice, Brett is skilled at hooking and slicing through often cruelly tight netting, box binding, fishing line, tuna suspension loops and rope. When it’s so tight it has sliced into skin and flesh, he uses a large net with an endpiece that effectively muzzles the seal while he removes the entanglement.

We set off from the Two Oceans Aquarium, past the dry dock, the painted cows and the bronze statues of Mandela and Tutu, De Klerk and Sobukwe – Brett striding with his long pole.

He surveys the jetties between gently rocking tourist ferries and a looming ship with a bulbous radar nose at water level. Young seals are playing king-of-the-castle on the bulb, claiming the perch then being knocked off to much happy barking. Others are herding shoals of small fish against the jetty and gulping them down in a breakfast feeding frenzy.


Claire Taylor about to disappear under the seal deck. (Photo: Don Pinnock)

Fur seals really are superfurry insulated. They have two thick layers – a soft inner fur and a waterproof outer layer. Below that is tough skin and a layer of blubber that keeps them warm in the freezing water in which they like to fish and play.

Sadly, in the past, this has made them the target for seal fur coats, which caused their numbers to crash. Fortunately, the practice was banned in South Africa, but clubbing baby seals still takes place annually in Namibia – cruelty for fashion under the guise of culling.

Further along the quay, some seals have gathered on a jetty at the stern of a massively ego-amped superyacht. “They shouldn’t be here,” Brett tut-tuts. “We try to train them to haul out on the platform near the aquarium.”

He climbs down and shoos them off. A straggler dares him for a few moments before conceding, slipping into the water like a sleek torpedo with an annoyed “arf”.


A hook used to cut entanglement around seals. (Photo: Don Pinnock)


Cutting the bait box strap on a seal. (Photo: Don Pinnock)

We drop down on to jetties lined with expensive luxury motor yachts. Backed up as they all are, their transoms are perfect seal platforms, giving them access to decks and, if the doors are left open, lounges.

“These owners hated seals and wanted them shot,” said Brett, “but we educated them to use little portable picket fences to stop them getting onto the transoms. And we patrol their jetties and sluice down any poo. So now we have a truce.”

There are about 1,7 million fur seals along South Africa’s coastline, so they’re not at risk. As hunters, they’re very efficient (while being food for sharks, especially great whites). A study of their diet found it contained an array of sea creatures, including anchovy, horse mackerel, pilchard, round herring, lanternfish, lightfish, goby, chub mackerel, snoek, Cape hake, macrourid, kingklip, Agulhas sole, jacopever and chokka squid.


There’s no way a seal can get a bait box strap off its own neck. (Photo: Don Pinnock)


The moment of freedom after the strap is cut. (Photo: Don Pinnock)

To stay warm and healthy in the icy Cape waters, a 72kg seal eats about 3,8kg of food a day, or 1,4 tonnes a year. Taking that as an average and multiplying it by the estimated seal population, this equals 2,4 million tons of food a year. Local fishermen aren’t nearly that successful and have been known to blame seals for poor catches.

About 250 seals live in Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront. More and more, however, are getting snagged by plastic. Since the end of December 2021, the aquarium team has disentangled nearly 100, about twice what they usually help in a year. Brett’s not sure why the increase. More plastic? More seals? Maybe the Cape harbour area is just more comfortable or has more accessible fish. In the Waterfront, however, they get disentangled, whereas elsewhere they die.

“If you walk along Strandfontein beach after a southeaster,” he says, “you’re guaranteed to find a seal carcass tangled in ghost net or fishing gear.”


Brett Glasby with a seal-catching net. (Photo: Don Pinnock)


Seals are extremely argumentative. (Photo: Don Pinnock)

In the South Atlantic, conditions appear to be changing, with more southern seals – elephant seals and even leopard seals – pitching up where they never used to be. Are climate change and warming oceans depleting food supplies? Hard to say, but it’s possible.

Seal entanglements come mainly from bait box bands used by the fishing industry. Instead of cutting the plastic strapping, fishermen slide it off the boxes. If it’s dropped in a bin on board, a strong wind or heavy sea can flip the bin over the side. Fishing line is also an issue – mainly tuna loops made of nylon cord used to hang tuna by their tails. Then there’s abandoned netting.

“We’ve even had laptop bags,” said Brett, “but most of it comes from the fishing industry. There’s just a lot of thoughtlessness.”

So Brett’s on a mission to promote thoughtfulness. The solutions are not difficult, he explains. Fishermen could cut the box bands, for a start. The manufacturer could put a perforation in the tape every 20cm or 30cm so it pops when extra pressure is applied. They could use glue to bind them that dissolves in seawater.

It’s also about educating the next generation. Brett takes kids around the Waterfront, getting them excited about wildlife. Apart from many birds and seals, there are sunfish and even, occasionally, a humpback whale.

“Nature’s with us all the time,” he explains as we circle back towards the Two Oceans Aquarium. “We’ve stolen wild environments and created our own. Wild animals are in our space – spiders, birds, bees, bats, chameleons – they’re wild creatures we take for granted. But once we start noticing them, a whole new world opens up.


Claire Taylor on harbour patrol. (Photo: Don Pinnock)


Owners of luxury yachts are not happy when seals visit and poo. (Photo: Don Pinnock)

“I’m mainly the land-based guy,” he explains. Divers like Claire Taylor and others in her team hook up through the slats of the seal platforms and get plastic off from below. Often seals are sleeping and don’t even notice.

“We have employees who came to the aquarium as school kids, got excited, studied environmental issues as undergrads, did their postgrad research here and are still here, passing on their excitement and enthusiasm.”

Claire is one of those. She started as a volunteer at the aquarium 22 years ago and now heads dry exhibits and marine welfare. But importantly, she’s a class 4 research and commercial diver. What she likes best is getting into a wetsuit, firing up the rubber duck, sliding into the water and approaching seals from below with a cutting hook.

It’s not something many divers would do. As she approaches an entangled seal from below the slatted deck, pee and poo can rain down on her upturned mask as she slowly raises the hook to snap off a box strap.

“I’m not much of a reader, I’m a doer,” she tells me as we motor across the water on an inspection circuit. “I’m more of a field agent, happy to go pick up your otter poo and seal poo and give it to a researcher. A whisker here, anal jelly there. That’s when I’m happiest.

“Seals are very playful animals with torpedo-shaped heads, so loops go over easily then stick as their body widens further back. And then, as the animal grows, it cuts through their breathing pipe or they die of infection from an open wound.”

Claire docks the rubber duck with remarkable dexterity, ramping it up out of the water and into its cradle with a roar of the outboard. Then we head for coffee at Bootleggers overlooking the noisy seal deck.

“The best part of being the aquarium’s marine welfare specialist is that I get to dive,” she says, looking a bit like a seal herself in her black wetsuit. “I’ve been working with seals for 15 years and I’m never happier than when I’m on or in the water.”


Brett Glasby coaxes a seal on the wrong jetty to jump. (Photo: Don Pinnock)


Claire Taylor checks on Waterfront seals. (Photo: Don Pinnock)

Recently she had a breakthrough. When she or Brett don’t get to a seal in time, the band cuts deep and it takes an operation to repair the damage – that means immobilising the animal.

“We couldn’t dart them because they’d head for water and drown. Then we came across a technique being done in British Columbia… a drug that doesn’t knock them out completely, so they stay on the surface and we can get to them. It changed our methodology.”

Later I find Brett checking bags of plastic straps, bits of netting and rope. “We record every freeing and send the information to the Department of Environment for research purposes. If only we could get the fishing industry to understand the damage their crews do through carelessness or thoughtlessness. It’s all about education.”

Then he stares across the dry dock at boats tugging at their moorings in a sudden dawn breeze. “I love the early mornings and the Waterfront,” he says. “It’s really cool, so peaceful…”

Somehow a group of barking seal pups on the deck below is part of his peace. If you listen right, it sounds like laughter. DM/OBP

[Lisbeth]

Global plastic waste on track to triple by 2060

05.06.2022


©Peter Ryan

A world severely blighted by plastic pollution is on track to see the use of plastics nearly triple in less than four decades, according to findings released Friday.

Annual production of fossil-fuel-based plastics is set to top 1.2 billion tons by 2060 and waste to exceed one billion tons, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Even with aggressive action to cut demand and improve efficiencies, plastic production would almost double in less than 40 years, the 38-nation body projects in a report.

Such globally coordinated policies, however, could hugely boost the share of future plastic waste that is recycled, from 12 to 40%.

There is increasing international alarm over volume and omnipresence of plastics pollution, and its impact.

Infiltrating the most remote and otherwise pristine regions of the planet, microplastics have been discovered inside fish in the deepest recesses of the ocean and locked inside Arctic ice.

The debris is estimated to cause the deaths of more than a million seabirds and over 100 000 marine mammals each year.

"Plastic pollution is one of the great environmental challenges of the 21st century, causing wide-ranging damage to ecosystems and human health," OECD chief Mathias Cormann said.

Since the 1950s, roughly 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced with more than 60% of that tossed into landfills, burned or dumped directly into rivers and oceans.

Some 460 million tons of plastics were used in 2019, twice as much as 20 years earlier.

The amount of plastic waste has also nearly doubled, exceeding 350 million tons, with less than 10% of it recycled.

The new report contrasts a business-as-usual trajectory with the benefits of more ambitious global policies of reduced plastic use and pollution.

Driven by economic growth and an expanding population, plastics production is set to increase under either scenario, the OECD warns.

Where policies can make a huge difference is in the handling of waste.

Currently, nearly 100 million tons of plastic waste is either mismanaged or allowed to leak into the environment, a figure set to double by 2060.

"Co-ordinated and ambitious global efforts can almost eliminate plastic pollution by 2060," the report concludes.

Earlier this year, the United Nations set in motion a process to develop an internationally binding treaty to limit plastic pollution.

[Lisbeth]

Fish in major South African river have microplastics coursing through them


The Vaal River at dusk. (Photo: Nana Cilliers)

By Dalia Saad | 28 Jul 2022

Plastic particles are becoming vehicles for toxic elements and organic contaminants which subsequently rise through food chains.
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We are living in the plastic age. Plastics are literally everywhere: clothes, furniture, computers, phones and more contain plastic materials. It’s no wonder, then, that the food we eat, the water we drink and even the air we breathe is contaminated with microplastics.

These tiny plastic particles are smaller than 5mm in diameter. Some, known as secondary microplastics, are formed from the breakdown of larger plastic items. In natural environments like rivers, plastics are exposed to different degradation processes driven by thermal, chemical, microbial and mechanical forces.

Primary microplastics, meanwhile, are manufactured at microscopic size to be used as fibres, films, foams and pellets, among other things. It is estimated that between 0.8 and 2.5 million tonnes of microplastics are released into the global marine system per year.

Once they’re in oceans, lakes, rivers and other bodies of water, microplastics absorb toxic elements and organic contaminants. Their small size and large surface area mean that microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi may also attach and colonise on them. This all makes microplastics a cocktail of contaminants.

Globally, microplastics research is still in its infancy as the scale of the problem has only become apparent in recent years. The knowledge gap is especially high across Africa. That’s worrying: the continent is home to some of the largest and deepest of the world’s lakes and notable rivers, but not much is known about the extent of microplastics in African freshwaters.

It is also difficult to assess the environmental and public health risks linked to microplastics. That’s because scientists are still learning about how microplastics move through various pathways and where people are most vulnerable to exposure.

In an attempt to bridge this gap, we recently studied common carp fish collected from South Africa’s Vaal River. It’s a major freshwater body of significant economic value that, the country’s Department of Water and Sanitation says, “supports almost 50% of South Africa’s gross domestic product”. The river supplies water for drinking, agriculture and industries and services to around 11 million people in the Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North West and Free State provinces.

Our findings were troubling. We took samples from 26 fishes’ digestive tracts and found a total of 682 particles — ranging from seven to 51 particles per fish. That means the river is considerably polluted with microplastics. This isn’t just potentially bad news for people’s health; it also has huge economic implications because the Vaal and similar water bodies are used for agriculture, breeding livestock and recreation.

Toxicity and risk

South Africa has a vibrant plastic manufacturing industry. Recycling, though, is limited. The country is ranked among the top 20 countries with the highest mass of mismanaged plastic waste — and a notable proportion of that enters the aquatic environment.

Many of the microplastics we recovered from our samples were small, coloured (dyed) and fibrous (the particles have a slender and elongated appearance). Those are worrying characteristics because studies have shown that several aquatic organisms are drawn to and consume small, coloured and fibrous microplastics, which resemble natural prey.

Their greater surface area means that smaller microplastics absorb more pollutants from the water that their larger counterparts, resulting in additional health risks. Research has also found that the smaller the microplastics the more likely they are to end up in aquatic organisms’ muscles and livers. That makes them more harmful to the animals. And their fibrous shape means they’re easily embedded in tissue. So they spend longer in an animal’s intestines and become more toxic.

Finally, coloured microplastics are particularly toxic because of the colouring agents used during the plastic manufacturing process.

Awareness and improved policies

Many people are simply not aware of what microplastics are, nor how they might cause harm. During sampling, we met some people who were fishing; others were cooking and eating fish along the banks of the Vaal River while they fished. They were interested to know what we were doing and admitted they’d not heard of this issue before.


People cooking freshly-caught fish on the banks of the Vaal River. (Photo: Dalia Saad)

This emphasises the importance of social awareness and public education. Public awareness strategies could include a wide range of activities designed to persuade and educate, perhaps beginning with early grade school curricula. It is important to extend the message beyond reuse and recycling to the responsible use and minimisation of waste. People should also be taught about the risks involved in using plastic for water or food storage.

Making people aware of these issues is key to creating public pressure to demand effective waste regulations. This is important because the negative effects of microplastic pollution are not limited to the bio-physical elements of the environment — they have implications for social and economic systems.

Rivers and lakes are used for transport, agriculture, breeding livestock and recreation. The productivity, viability, profitability and safety of these sectors are highly vulnerable to plastic pollution. Microplastics pollution is as much a social concern as it is a scientific one. DM

The author would like to acknowledge her students who conducted the study with her: Patricia Chauke, Gibbon Ramaremisa, and Michelle Ndlovu.
Dalia Saad is a researcher at the School of Chemistry, University of the Witwatersrand.

First published by The Conversation.

[Lisbeth]

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

What the SA government is doing to hold plastic producers accountable


Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Barbara Creecy during a clean-up at Macassar Beach in Cape Town on World Environment Day, 5 June 2023 (Photo: DFFE)

By Julia Evans | 06 Jun 2023

After a departmental delegation returned from international negotiations on a plastic treaty in Paris, Environment Minister Barbara Creecy hosted World Environment Day on Monday. She emphasised the urgent action that is needed to address plastic pollution and highlighted what her department was doing to contribute to this necessary change.
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‘Urgent action is required to combat plastic pollution and its detrimental impacts on human health, the economy and the environment,” said Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Barbara Creecy on Monday.

Creecy’s department was hosting World Environment Day 2023 in Cape Town in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep).

This year’s World Environment Day is focused on finding solutions to eliminate waste and pollution, especially plastic, under the theme #BeatPlasticPollution, with the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) wanting to raise public awareness about the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.



Globally, an estimated 353 million tonnes of plastic waste are produced each year, only about 10% of which is recycled.

Locally, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature in South Africa, a little over 2.5 million tonnes of plastic are produced annually. The DFFE said poor waste management practices mean that as much as half of post-consumer plastic is not properly disposed of and risks leaking into the environment.

World Environment Day comes off the back of the second meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-2) on Plastic Pollution that took place in Paris last week, where 175 nations, including South Africa, reaffirmed their commitment to developing an international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, by the end of 2024.

Read more in Daily Maverick: SA officials in Paris to negotiate a legally binding global plastic treaty

“In my view, such an international legally binding agreement aims to bring about greater accountability, cooperation and innovation between government, industry, extended producer schemes and waste reclaimers to address the plastic pollution problem,” said Creecy on Monday.

Earth Negotiations Bulletin reported that the end of the meeting saw delegates agree to set out a path for the phase between the INC-2 and the INC-3, mandating the preparation of a “zero draft” of the new plastic treaty to be considered at INC-3.

Ghana, for the African Group, supported establishing an international legally binding instrument, which is something the SA delegation also sought to do.


On the second day of INC-2, delegates continued debating the rules of procedure on 30 May 2023. (Photo: IISD / ENB / Kiara Worth)

“In South Africa, the negotiating process is already bringing about greater agreement collaboration between all stakeholders as they work to identify achievable goals to ensure plastic waste and pollution is effectively addressed,” said Creecy.

Placing responsibility on the producers

Creecy acknowledged that South Africa had significant waste management challenges, which included “poor landfill practices and sporadic household waste collection as well as unacceptable levels of illegal dumping in many parts of the country”.

She said that South Africa’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes for paper and packaging had begun the important work of diverting waste from landfill sites.

The EPR is a policy approach that shifts the responsibility from the consumer to the producer when it comes to waste management. It was established in 2008 and requires producers to develop and submit waste management plans and to finance the collection, recycling, and disposal of the waste generated by their products.

Jane Barrett from Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising, which supports the organising of waste pickers, previously explained to Daily Maverick that the EPR gets manufacturers to take responsibility for some of the costs of the disposal and/or recycling of their products and packaging.

For example, products like paper and packaging, electrical and electronic equipment (e-waste), lighting and tyres have been identified by SA legislation as having a significant environmental impact and are subject to EPR legislation.

Creecy said that last year more than 1.5 million tonnes of paper and packing were diverted from landfills through recycling, recovery and treatment.

To commemorate World Environment Day, Creecy visited two recycling plants in Cape Town to gain insights into the roles EPR schemes are playing in plastic recycling.

What the government is doing

Creecy has previously acknowledged SA’s failing waste management system, which is run by local municipalities, reporting that a third of households still don’t have weekly waste removal.

To support municipalities, Creecy said her department would focus on improving cleanliness in provincial capitals as part of the reinvigorated Presidential Good Green Deeds Programme.

“Here in the Western Cape we will be focusing on the broader Cape Flats region where many formal and informal settlements have inadequate waste removal and plastic leaches into rivers and eventually into the sea,” said Creecy.

Through the Expanded Public Works Programme, the DFFE would offer work opportunities to 2,000 women, young people and persons with disabilities per province to support the cleaning and greening of provincial capitals by assisting in litter picking in prioritised streets as well as clearing illegal dumps, planting trees and promoting recycling services.

“Their efforts are being complemented by the 32 waste enterprises that have been supported to increase recycling of construction and demolition waste, plastic, packaging and other waste streams,” said Creecy.

The minister said that through her department’s Recycling Enterprise Support Programme, 56 start-ups, emerging SMMEs and cooperatives operating in the waste sector had been supported in the past six years, with the department providing more than R300-million in financial support, creating 1,558 jobs and diverting more than 200,000 tonnes of waste from landfills. DM

[Lisbeth]

Plastic, plastic everywhere – decades of talking moves closer to global action


Following a major clean-up effort by local volunteers, turtles returned to nest on Versova Beach in Mumbai, India, in 2018. This image was taken at the start of a massive clean-up, which lasted for 136 weeks. (Photo: UNEP)

By Tony Carnie | 08 Nov 2023

Governments are meeting in Nairobi next week to craft a new global treaty on plastic pollution before the end of 2024. It aims to have an emphasis on reducing plastic pollution of the sea and to promote a new ‘comprehensive approach that addresses the full life cycle of plastic’.
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People have been talking for decades about doing “something” to curb the tide of plastic pollution fouling the land and the sea worldwide. Finally, it seems, the talking phase has moved a step closer to action. Next week, governments are meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, to craft a new global treaty before the end of next year.

With an estimated 11 million tonnes of plastic waste pouring into the sea every year, most people recognise that there is a serious problem.

Yet plastic products are now so ubiquitous in our homes and offices that governments (and the billions of people who have come to depend on their convenience) will struggle to find a magic wand powerful enough to banish the problem overnight.

Trade statistics show that the market for plastic continues to grow rapidly. Studies commissioned by the WWF conservation group suggest that global plastic production has almost doubled over the past two decades and is expected to more than triple by 2050.

Several countries have already banned or restricted the use of throwaway plastic shopping bags, one of the most visible manifestations of this crisis. But a cursory look at the piles of synthetic rubbish lining the beaches or floating in the oceans makes it clear that plastic shopping bags are not the only problem.


Waste pickers take a break from collecting recyclable valuables at the Dandera dump in Nairobi, Kenya. (Photo: Unep)

Sitting at my desk, I am surrounded by plastic. My pen is made of plastic, along with my phone, printer, computer, electrical plugs, a paperweight, the lid on a bottle of eyedrops…

If there was such a thing as a giant plastic-attracting magnet, there would be very little left in kitchens and fridges across the world.

You know… things like the cling film draped over the dinner leftovers, the milk sachets, the margarine tub, the wrapping used to keep veggies fresh. The list goes on and on.

So, what is to be done?

Emerging treaty

Early last year, at a meeting in the Kenyan capital, members of the United Nations Environment Assembly passed Resolution 5/14 to “end plastic pollution”.

It aims to develop an international legally binding treaty on plastic pollution by the end of 2024, with an emphasis on reducing plastic pollution of the sea and promoting a new “comprehensive approach that addresses the full life cycle of plastic”.

The initial wish list covers more than 20 items, including a focus on “sustainable production and consumption of plastics”. This could extend to better product design and environmentally sound waste management, including a circular economy (where plastic is reused continuously rather than being discarded).

The proposed treaty would also promote national and international efforts to reduce plastic pollution in the marine environment and clean up decades of existing plastic pollution.

Some of the potential low-hanging victories include tougher action on single-use, throwaway plastic products, but even that is not guaranteed considering their low prices and convenience to consumers.

The emerging treaty also envisages new compulsory reporting schemes to measure action on a country-to-country basis and – perhaps most crucially – major drives to raise public awareness about the causes and impacts of plastic pollution.

This is because the problem goes much further than being simply a litter eyesore.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Plastic waste draft treaty is here and South Africa should embrace it

According to a WWF special report prepared by the Geneva-based Dalberg consultancy group, certain forms of plastic pollution now pose growing threats to both human health and natural ecosystems.

Last year, a research journal reported the results of a pioneering biomedical study demonstrating that tiny particles of plastic polymers are bioavailable for uptake into the human bloodstream.

While the authors stressed that further research is needed to understand the potential health hazards to people, other studies have demonstrated a wide variety of negative impacts on marine species exposed to plastic pollution.

For example, as these synthetic products break down in the sea, tiny particles of plastic are eaten or absorbed by plankton and other small organisms that form the base of the seafood chain.

Quite apart from sea creatures becoming entangled in plastic ropes, fishing gear or other plastic debris, fish also ingest plastic fragments that can block their digestive tracts or limit their food uptake by creating a false sense of satiation.

Despite widespread perceptions that they are benign, several common plastic products still contain toxic or other synthetic chemicals that can mimic or antagonise the actions of natural animal or human hormones such as estrogens – raising concern around fertility and harm to developing foetuses.

Many of the chemicals used in the manufacture of plastic food packaging or food contact materials have also not been tested for hazardous properties at all, or the available toxicity data are limited.

It’s also worth remembering that the vast majority of virgin plastics are derived from petrochemical feedstock such as natural gas or crude oil – so the rapid growth of the industry is a significant source of greenhouse gases that drive global heating.

According to the Dalberg report, plastic production will account for up to 20% of the entire global carbon budget by 2040, accelerating the climate crisis.

So, there is a lot at stake for the vested interests of plastics and fossil fuel industries during the negotiations in Nairobi from November 13-19.

Balanced foundation


Merrrisa Naidoo. (Photo: Gaia)

The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (Gaia), one of several civil society watchdog groups monitoring the progress of the plastic treaty negotiations, suggests that the draft negotiating text (known as the Zero Draft) provides a useful starting point.

Durban-based Merrisa Naidoo, who leads Gaia’s Africa Plastics campaign, says that while it is not as ambitious as many parties would like it to be, the Zero Draft is a “balanced” document that provides a foundation to gradually strengthen the proposed treaty over time.

Speaking during a webinar on 7 November, Environment Minister Barbara Creecy stressed the need for more transparent disclosure of hazardous chemicals in plastic polymer products.

Speaking on behalf of Gaia and other local civil society groups, Naidoo advocated a policy of “no data – no market access” (where the failure to provide health impact studies by plastic makers would trigger a ban on untested products).

Gaia is worried that there is already strong pushback from several plastics lobby groups, similar to that seen in the abysmally slow climate treaty negotiations.

The organisation noted that during the last plastic negotiation meeting in Paris earlier this year, the first two days were mostly taken up by objections from large oil and plastic-producing countries, who raised procedural issues that delayed discussions on the substance of the treaty.

According to Gaia, some countries (including Saudi Arabia and Russia) wanted to have veto power over the treaty text by advocating for consensus only, with no opportunity for voting if consensus could not be reached.

“This bucks the standard set in other international negotiations like the successful Minamata Convention on mercury, and essentially allows a single country to further delay or even completely block the international community’s ability to get a strong treaty over the finish line.”

Eventually, after lengthy debates, a provisional agreement was reached to proceed on the basis of a two-thirds majority if consensus could not be reached – but because this procedural can had been kicked down the road, it was likely that the same objections would re-emerge in Nairobi next week.

Gaia states that there were at least 190 industry lobbyists at the last meeting who used their power to undermine calls for plastic reduction by promoting tech fixes.

“We’ve all seen how slow and ineffective global climate controls have been, including the noted failures of the Paris (Climate) Agreement, and we don’t have the time to waste on the same mistake,” Gaia cautions.

There are also concerns that the global plastic industry is promoting quick-fix approaches by simply burning plastic waste for energy or using controversial chemical recycling processes to produce new fuel additives or other new forms of plastics.

SA’s approach


Plastic bottles and other floating debris line a beach south of Durban after a summer rainstorm. (Photo: Lisa Guastella)

Minister Creecy, however, told the webinar that the South African plastics industry employed nearly 60,000 people, “so will be working in consultation with both the plastics industry and organised labour”.

While negotiating in Nairobi, the South African delegation would be guided by the need to reach decisions based on the best available science.

The second guiding principle was the need for open and transparent sharing of information about the chemicals used in plastic production, especially plastic products that come into contact with food.

It was also likely, she said, that the new global treaty would require South Africa to introduce new regulatory controls at a domestic level.

“The fourth issue is finance: should the international instrument lead to obligatory measures to curb plastic pollution, there will be a need for these measures to be supported by equally ambitious means of implementation.

“So, developing countries will argue for a financial mechanism that would ensure predictable and adequate financial resources to assist in curbing plastic pollution in developing countries.”

The environment department’s chemicals and waste management deputy director-general, Mamogela Musekene, said South Africa would also support the establishment of mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility schemes that aim to hold plastic distributors responsible for the pollution caused by their products.

This would compel plastic producers to contribute fees to new structures tasked with managing end-of-life plastic waste.

On the question of short-lived or single-use plastic products, South Africa supported a position where each country would take measures to regulate and reduce the production, sale, distribution, import or export of these products “as appropriate”.

Musekene said the need for the qualifying phrase, “as appropriate”, was because there was a very broad range of single-use plastics where disposable products would still be necessary – particularly in the health sector.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Here’s how to dramatically decrease plastic pollution in three practical steps

Anton Hanekom, executive director of Plastics SA, believes the local industry could play a major role in the development of a new circular economy where “plastics remain plastics as long as possible”.

“But we have to recognise that we sit with a broken system (in South Africa). A lot of plastic is ending up in the environment because we don’t have the proper waste management systems in place.”

Hanekom said it was estimated that only 39% of the population had access to proper waste management systems, so it was critical to sort and reuse more of this unmanaged waste.

In a separate statement ahead of the Nairobi talks, Hanekom said: “While the likelihood of a global cap on plastic production has decreased, there are growing calls for bans on certain plastic products and additives, ingredient transparency, and taxes to support waste reduction.

“It is our opinion that the Zero Draft text will pose certain challenges for plastic manufacturers. While there may be elements that we as an industry may support, we anticipate that the document will have a top-down approach…

“In contrast, the global plastics community advocates for a bottom-up approach, emphasising the importance of considering the unique challenges and needs of each country before enforcing a legally binding instrument,” Hanekom said. DM

[Lisbeth]

I have never seen a country so full of stinking waste as India. People just throw it where it is most handy

[Lisbeth]

Picture worth 1,000 words



Governments are meeting in Nairobi this week to craft a new global treaty on plastic pollution before the end of 2024. A commitment to deal with plastic pollution can’t come soon enough as this picture by Lisa Guastella of plastic bottles and other floating debris on a beach south of Durban after a summer rainstorm shows.