188 environmental groups from around the world are calling on governments, business leaders, financial institutions and investors to support radical change that puts an end to the production of polluting single-use products.
The coalition says there needs to be a collective shift in the way products are designed and manufactured in order to avoid waste. Many of the solutions already exist, but the pace and scale of change needs to escalate dramatically, it adds.
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The call comes as government representatives from 193 member states prepare to meet at the United Nations Environment Assembly next week, which will run under the theme ‘Strengthening Actions for Nature to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.’
The environmental groups have today (17 February) issued a joint position paper ‘From Single Use to Systems Change,’ to highlight the massive impact that disposable products are having on the natural environment, wildlife, human health, and vulnerable communities.
Single-use products, from packaging to food containers, to disposable cups and cutlery, are a key contributor to the 2bn tonnes of waste that humans produce every year. That number is projected to increase 70% by 2050, they say.
“We’re depleting the very life support systems that we all need to survive, simply for the supposed convenience of single-use products,” says Tamara Stark, campaigns director of Canopy, one of the authors of the joint position paper. “Doing away with disposables will not only reduce waste but help address climate change, protect forests, and stop microplastics from poisoning marine life.”
The paper states: “From cradle to grave, single-use products leave behind a legacy of negative environmental impacts that humanity and the earth’s resources can simply not afford.
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By GlobalData“The use of both plastic and paper for single-use products causes significant and lasting environmental harm that we urgently need to address. Of the 300 million tonnes of plastic produced each year, half of that goes into single-use products and applications. Since plastic is derived from fossil fuel extraction and manufacturing, its very production contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.
“The life cycle of paper-based single-use products derived from trees is similarly devastating, and yet often under-estimated. Carbon released in the logging process contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and the removal of natural forests eliminate the ability of those forests to continue to mitigate against climate change. Each year, three billion trees are cut down to make paper packaging, and that’s projected to increase by 20% over the next five years.”
While the coalition says the overwhelming majority of single-use products, especially throwaway packaging, can be eliminated or phased out quickly and replaced with circular systems that promote re-use and reduction.
It calls on all relevant bodies to:
Re-direct public and private funds to support the start-up and scale-up of systems that support reusable products and circularity, and disincentivise continuation of single-use commodities by increasing levies and taxes on those products and the systems that prop them up.
Re-design to support:
- Responsible material lifecycles: Ensure that the life cycle of the materials and products we use – from extraction and production, to end-use, recycling, composting, and disposal – sustain the health of the people and the planet.
- Responsible and clean production: Ensure producers take responsibility for the full life cycle costs and impacts of their products and packaging, and redesign and innovate better products from renewable, safe, and sustainable feedstocks and move towards systems that facilitate circularity.
- Responsible consumption: reject single-use products in favour of reusable ones made with the lowest possible environmental and social footprint.
Reward innovation to help scale-up lasting solutions that are widely adopted and benefit both people and the planet.
Reparation for damage by recognising and accepting responsibility for harm caused by the production and consumption of single use products, in particular, to indigenous peoples and people of colour, who are often disproportionately affected by modern extractive and pollutive industries.
Restore degraded natural habitats that have been impacted as a result of the production and disposal of products and packaging, whilst recognising the important role that local and indigenous communities play in conservation and restoration. Protect and promote sustainable use of forest and marine ecosystems to enable a circular economy supported by closed-loop regenerative feedstocks.
A number of apparel brands and retailers have already turned their attention to addressing packaging, and particularly single-use plastic. Last week, VF Corporation, owner of brands including The North Face, Timberland and Vans, announced a series of new sustainable packaging goals, including a pledge to eliminate all single-use plastic packaging, including polybags, by 2025.
In November, Spanish clothing brand Mango vowed to eliminate the use of 160m plastic bags per year in its supply chain, while athletic apparel retailer Lululemon released its first-ever ‘Impact Agenda’ a month earlier, with a pledge to reduce single-use plastic packaging by 50% by 2025 among its 12 goals.
