Let's beat plastic pollution

Editor's note: Erik Solheim, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is the President of the Green Belt and Road Institute, former Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program, and former Minister of Climate and the Environment of Norway. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

In the midst of the economic crisis in Sri Lanka in 2022, Nishanka De Silva, a young Sri Lankan, decided to found the ZeroPlastic Movement. His aim was to mobilize young people to clean the spectacular beaches of this beautiful island nation and to mobilize for lasting solutions to the plastic crisis.

I told him he must be crazy. Sri Lankans were at the time suffering from power cuts and many were spending hours, even days, lining up for fuel. Many demonstrated demanding for the president to go. Young Sri Lankans have more urgent issues, I remember I told him.

Unfazed Nish went forward with his plan. In two years, the ZeroPlastics Movement has developed to be probably the most important green movement in the land. There are Zeroplastics clubs in most universities. Tens of thousands of Sri Lankans have helped clean beaches and rivers. I have had the privilege to join them and feel their enthusiasm.

It's encouraging to see how people all over the globe are mobilizing to address the plastic crisis. They want to make the case: Plastics have no role in nature, nor in our bodies. When the United Nations Environment Assembly meets in Nairobi, Kenya, from February 26, the main expectation is that it will agree on a global treaty to fight plastic pollution. This is a work I was proud to help start as the Executive Director of the UN Environment Assembly seven years ago.

A global plastic treaty will empower people like Nishanka De Silva. It will put pressure on business to innovate and make better products. It will provide a moral standard for a world free of plastic pollution and spur governments into action.

When plastic was introduced in America in the 1950s, it was seen as a wonder material. We could preserve food better, make cars and aircraft lighter and protect against dangerous bacteria. But as often in human life, when we humans discover something good, we get addicted. We start overusing it.

There are three main reasons why humanity needs to get out of its plastic addiction.

Plastics have no role in nature. They cause an environment catastrophe. A whale died in Thailand recently. It vomited plastic bags while passing away. Sea birds in my home country Norway dive down, mistaking plastics for shellfish. They feed their chick with this disastrous food. They perish, as do camels, cattle and turtles, in all corners of the planet.

Single-use plastic has added an economic disaster. Who will swim along the wonderful beaches of Hainan, south China, or in Türkiye, Greece or Florida, if you have to crawl through a sea of plastics? For this reason, tourism-dependent Indonesia declared plastic pollution a major economic threat to the nation.

Thirdly, plastics penetrate into our bodies. Microplastics are widely found in our food, water and air. We breath plastics, we drink plastics, we eat plastics. Even the most pristine waters of the world, in the Himalayas or the Arctic, now contain microplastics.

Doctors in Beijing, capital of China, last year during surgery found microplastics in the heart tissue of a patient. We don't know exactly how microplastics affect the human body. But no one has suggested it is good for us.

Fortunately, we have the recipe to solve the plastic crisis. Plastic, different from climate, is a national and local crisis. Every nation can act, without looking over its shoulder asking what others are doing. In small, poor, landlocked Rwanda, you cannot find garbage in the streets even if you bring in the intelligence services. The capital Kigali is absolutely clean. "All Rwandans keep clean at home," President Paul Kagame told me. "We just needed to transform that spirit to the community at large." The solution, inspired by Rwanda and others, is three fold.

We should prohibit all single-use plastics we do not need. Let's simply ban straws, plastic cutlery, plastic cups and bags. This is what the Indian government has done even if it's not yet fully respected everywhere. The European Union has done the same. We can all drink straight from a normal glass, without straws. There is no need to wait. Let's just do it!

Additionally, we can be a lot more innovative. Straws can be made from bamboo or from paper. Indians have through millennia eaten from plates made of banana leaves. Chinese have eaten with chop sticks made from wood. All over the planet, start-ups are trying to make products with plastics characteristics from potatoes, sugar cane and many other natural materials. If we throw away natural products, they will disintegrate in nature. Like a banana skin.

But we will still end up with many plastic products which are useful to us and not so easy to replace. During COVID-19 pandemic, plastics were a first line of defense against disease. A normal car contains many kilos of plastics, which make the car lighter thereby consuming less energy. These plastics must be brought in and recycled.

All countries should introduce Extended Producer Responsibility. That is, the polluter should pay principle for the plastics era. A company which contributes to the plastic crisis should also be held responsible for funding and innovating the solution. With Extended Producer Responsibility, companies will be engaged in driving the technology for change. They will have to pay a levy on plastics which governments can use to organize plastic collection and pay for large-scale recycling.

Waste is a resource. We can turn it into new products, creating jobs and prosperity, protecting Mother Earth all the same. The city of Indore is repeatedly awarded the title of cleanest city in India. Visionary politicians created a system of sorting the garbage at home, turning wet waste into bio fuels for the city buses and changing the attitudes of the people. Many Chinese cities are likewise aiming to become zero-waste cities.

The global people's movement to fight single-use plastics is picking up momentum all over the world, led by green governments, innovative business and activists like Nishanka De Silva. A global plastic treaty agreed in Nairobi these days will add weight to the campaign.

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