Plastics Conference in Busan: No Agreement

PLASTICS CONFERENCE IN BUSAN: NO AGREEMENT

We are choking on plastics: they are on our beaches, by the sides of our roads, in our water, in our food, in the air, in our lungs. The meeting in Busan, South Korea, was supposed to do something about it.

There were two main groups of opinion at the conference. They were the linearists and the circularists. The linearists look at plastics as a stream: they want to limit production and ban toxic inputs and outputs. The circularists want to focus on recycling.

Plastics are mostly produced from petroleum. Big petroleum producers like Saudi Arabia and Russia opposed any limits on production. The US and China, the world’s top two plastics producers, were on the sidelines. The lack of agreement at Busan is a major setback for environmental justice.

Source: The New York Time and The Guardian both 12/1/24, and Science Direct, March 2024