Call for Government to support international plastic treaty
Wednesday, 1 September 2021
An international environmental group is calling for the Government to commit to immediate, concrete action to help tackle the world's plastic problem.
The first-ever Global Ministerial Conference dedicated to plastic pollution started Wednesday, and is a stepping stone towards creating a legally-binding treaty on plastics at next year’s United Nations Environmental Assembly.
It would be plastic pollution’s version of the Paris climate agreement, and governments worldwide have already announced their support.
The World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) New Zealand chapter is calling for New Zealand's leaders to do the same.
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“Eleven million tonnes of plastic enters our oceans each year. Even in New Zealand, 70 per cent of our beachcast litter is plastic,” chief executive Livia Esterhazy said.
“It’s on every peak, in every trench … the oceans are full of it.”
With ocean currents able to carry plastic waste to every corner of the globe, a global solution was needed to tackle the problem, she said.
WWF launched an international petition last month calling for people to support a plastics treaty, and it now has more than two million signatures.
Esterhazy said at least 4000 were from Kiwis, so it was clear New Zealanders were concerned about the issue too.
On top of that, two-thirds of the United Nation member states, and 75 major corporations, had said they were open to considering the new agreement.
New Zealand’s Government had recently taken some positive steps, she said.
In July, Environment Minister David Parker announced a swathe of single-use plastics like drink stirrers, cotton buds, cutlery, straws and fruit labels, would be phased out by 2025.
Before that, most plastic shopping bags were pulled from stores in 2019.
Parker previously said New Zealand wanted to be part of global solutions to tackle the impacts of plastic pollution.
“New Zealand supports coordinated global action through discussions towards a new global agreement at the United Nations Environment Assembly in 2022.”
But Esterhazy said the Government had fallen short of endorsing a plastics treaty outright.
“Plastic is a poison, at the end of the day. Our bodies, our environment, our beautiful animals and birds can’t break it down.
“If Shakespeare had written Romeo and Juliet with a plastic pen, that pen would still be here today.”
The No Plastic in Nature report from Australia's University of Newcastle found in 2019 the average person was consuming 2000 tiny pieces of plastic every week – the equivalent of a credit card.
“It’s in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat.”
Marine plastics in particular posed a significant threat to both humans and wildlife, Esterhazy said.
New Zealand whales, seabirds, and marine mammals were turning up dead on beaches, either entangled or with stomachs full of plastic.
Esterhazy said while trees got most of the credit for oxygen, the ocean gave humans every second breathe they took.
“We’re suffocating ourselves.”
Officials from the Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade represented New Zealand at the conference.
An Environment Ministry spokesperson said the Government took its global responsibilities seriously, and New Zealand would support coordinated global action to combat marine plastic pollution.
That included being part of discussions about a global agreement.
When the United Nations Environmental Assembly meets next February, it will decide whether to launch negotiations for an international plastic treaty.
What its scope will be, and commitments members will be expected to make, will be subject to those negotiations.