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Sri Lanka agrees that to deal with plastic pollution, humanity must change
The INC in session. Pic by IISDENB Anastasia Rodopoulou
The third Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee (INC) to develop a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, began its sessions at Nairobi in Kenya earlier this week. Parties, which include Sri Lanka, engaged in negotiations on the zero draft that was prepared by the INC Chair and shared on October 1.
INC-3 signifies the halfway point in the progression towards a global treaty, building on prior negotiations at Punta del Este in Uruguay (INC-1, November 2022), and Paris (INC-2, June 2023). Two additional INC sessions are scheduled for 2024.
“To deal with plastic pollution, humanity must change. We must change the way we consume, the way we produce, and how we dispose of our waste. This is the reality of our world. Change is inevitable. This treaty, this instrument that we are working on, is the first domino in this change. Let us bring it home. Let the change begin,” insisted Kenyan President William Ruto at the opening of the session.
Sri Lanka’s Central Environmental Authority (CEA) Assistant Director Nishantha Dharmasiri said Sri Lanka’s goals at the recent session in Kenya were to agree to the options made available in the zero draft document but was unaware of what the exact options Sri Lanka would have to agree to.
Sri Lanka has passed regulations banning various plastic items throughout the years in 2017, 2020, and 2023 according to the Assistant Director.
At the sessions on Tuesday, Sri Lanka advocated for the inclusion of responsibilities and regulatory measures spanning the entire life cycle of plastics within the International Legally Binding Instrument (ILBI). They proposed that these measures be supplemented by voluntary approaches tailored to accommodate the specific circumstances and capacities of developing countries.
The commitment to an instrument that addresses the full life span of plastic is a goal that was opined repeatedly in the negotiations.
“Not an instrument that deals with plastic pollution by recycling or waste management alone. The full life cycle. This means rethinking everything along the chain, from polymer to pollution and from product to packaging,” said UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Inger Andersen.
“We need to use fewer virgin materials, less plastic, and no harmful chemicals. We need to ensure that we use, reuse, and recycle resources more efficiently, and dispose safely of what is left over, use these negotiations to hone a sharp and incisive instrument to carve out a better future, free from plastic pollution,”he added.
“Recycling should be a last resort,” said Indika Rajapaksha, Environment Officer of the Centre for Environmental Justice in Sri Lanka.
He added that heavy reliance on recycling did not address the issue and “waste-to-energy” solutions were false solutions that increased pollution. He observed that the debate on the control of primary plastic production to bring plastic waste to a manageable level still existed as countries such as China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Brazil advocated for plastic as a life-saving material.
“We do not advocate for zero plastics but there is no doubt that we are heading to a plastic waste management crisis,” he said.
Mr. Rajapaksha also refuted the idea that plastic was necessary for development especially when there was no regulation or information on the chemicals used for plastic or the toxicity levels of the materials used.
“The treaty is an opportunity to manage things,”he said.
The launch of INC-3 was preceded by a preparatory meeting on November 11, also held in Nairobi. During this session, delegates participated in preliminary and informal discussions of their perspectives. Additionally, regional consultations were conducted on November 12. A stocktaking plenary convened yesterday following multiple contact group negotiations on the updates for the zero draft document and the synthesis report that were set to come out of the negotiations.
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