Mexico City.- The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF, for its acronym in English) released plastic products that should be banned immediately through the global agreement to end plastic pollution.
Currently, its wording is being developed by an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC). It is expected to be ready by the end of 2024 and will be the most important environmental pact since the Paris Agreement, which aims to combat climate change, according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
WWF commissioned Eunomia, a research and consulting firm, to produce a couple of reports that identify the most harmful and unnecessary plastic products that pollute the environment. They also propose control measures necessary to eliminate, reduce or safely manage such plastics.
As a priority, the agreement must include an immediate ban on the production and sale of the most harmful plastics, since many of them can be easily lived without and many are single-use. In addition, there are alternatives without such material. According to the documents, they are the following:
unnecessary plastic fibers
Some examples are wet wipes, cigarette butts, disposable filters for vacuum cleaners, and plastic tea bags.
single use plastics
Balloons, Q-tips, disposable electronic cigarettes, as well as disposable utensils, cups, and plates are examples of this category.
microplastics
Those intentionally added to personal care products, such as toothpastes and skin care items, uniforms, antifouling paint for boats, printer inks, spray paints, abrasives, molding supplies injection and fertilizer coatings.
Although other plastics are harmful, such as single-use food packaging, contact lenses and tires, WWF acknowledges that immediate bans would not be feasible because in some cases there are still no such material-free alternatives to necessary scale.
For this reason, he advocates that the agreement contemplate its reduction or gradual elimination no later than 2035. Meanwhile, governments and companies could implement new measures, such as reuse models.
Harmful plastics that, realistically, could not be eliminated, should be put under measures to prevent them from polluting nature, promote a circular economy model and minimize waste. Some examples are pharmaceutical packaging, fishing and agricultural equipment, as well as hygiene items.
WWF called on the deal negotiators to include their proposals in the pact’s working text, which should be published before the next round of talks in December 2023.
