Table of Contents
The United Nations adjourned its plastics summit in Geneva, Switzerland, with no version of a global treaty coming close to reaching “consensus.”
This is great news for the global economy, as radical proposals sought to place taxes and controls on every phase of plastic production and use.
The UN plastics summit tried to follow the climate conference script, where launching into late-night overtime is standard. Bleary eyes, however, induced no parties to alter their positions.
Developing nations and the EU were unable to convince manufacturing and petroleum-producing nations to agree on a draft.
The anti-plastics nations attempted to kill production via a death by a thousand cuts strategy, by calling for the elimination of important chemicals used in plastics production. The pro-plastics nations saw through the ploy and blocked it.
Plastics have been a crucial factor in enabling people at every economic level to afford high-quality manufactured goods. They are essential to societal abundance.
The ideal solution is to keep plastic in our economies, but to do a great job at managing recycling and waste. Nations with advanced economies have already made huge strides. The vast majority of plastic pollution in the oceans comes from fishing gear and a few rivers in Asia and Africa. Forbidding the use of plastic straws in Paris or Peoria achieves nothing meaningful to combat this waste.
As CFACT President Craig Rucker recently wrote:
The real tragedy isn’t plastic itself, but the mismanagement of plastic waste – and the regulatory stranglehold that blocks better solutions. In many countries, recycling is a government-run monopoly with little incentive to innovate. Meanwhile, private-sector entrepreneurs working on advanced recycling, biodegradable materials, and AI-powered sorting systems face burdensome red tape and market distortion.
A new UN regime of taxation, mandates, and bans is not the way to deal with the issues surrounding plastics (or pretty much anything else). Working with developing nations to up their recycling and waste management is the way to go.
This article was originally published by CFACT.
