The EU and the WWF (www.panda.org) are continuing their push for global regulation of plastics and plastics waste ahead of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) meeting on sustainable development in Nairobi, Kenya, set for 28 February-2 March. Their concerns are rooted in the rising amount of plastics in the world’s marine environs. According to the NGO, a legally binding UN treaty on plastic pollution will global standards and support all countries to play their part.

“This year must be the year of the oceans,” EU environment commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius said. Speaking in Washington, D.C. at the beginning of February, he noted, “It is essential to get plastics under control, and the only way to do it is globally.

“Current initiatives, regulations and efforts have proved insufficient to tackle the global crisis of plastic pollution, in particular in the marine environment.”

In previous remarks to Reuters, he also called for curbs on the use of fossil-based material in resin production to combat climate change. “The biggest topic is, at the end of the day, oil use for plastic production.”

Coming on the heels of Sinkevicius’ comments is a review commissioned by the WWF of hundreds of academic studies on plastics in the oceans. The report, Impacts of Plastic Pollution in the Oceans on Marine Species, Biodiversity and Ecosystems, says the materials have completely infiltrated the Earth’s marine environment. “Plastic pollution is now ubiquitous. It has reached every part of the ocean, from the sea surface to the deep ocean floor, from the poles to coastlines of the most remote islands and is detectable in the smallest plankton up to the largest whale.”

The outlook remains grim, the environmental group said. “Plastic pollution will inevitably continue to increase, but the magnitude of the increase is very much dependent on what governments, industry, wholesale and societies do.”

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It warned that a number of plastics industry growth scenarios suggest an up to four-fold increase of oceanic macroplastics concentrations by 2050, and a 50-fold increase of ocean microplastics concentrations by 2100.

“In contrast, the most optimistic scenarios, which rely on a massive source reduction, improved waste management, recycling and removal at a global scale, would reduce annual plastic emissions by 36%-91%.”

Regardless of the next step, the impact on the marine world will continue to worsen due to the amount of plastics waste already in the system, but the damage will be a question of degrees, the WWF said. “Concentrations of microplastics and nanoplastics will continue to rise for decades even if all plastic emissions cease now.”

Nearly 120 of some of the world’s largest companies and institutions say they back global plastics regulations, and this group voiced its support for a business-based argument for worldwide oversight presented by the WWF, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF), and US-based Boston Consulting Group (see Plasteurope.com of 01.02.2022).

Earlier this year, UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) said it wants a binding global UN treaty for regulating plastics to stop the “deadly ticking clock” of pollution (see Plasteurope.com of 25.01.2022).