Ottawa, Canada | Traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People. View of plenary during the fourth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4) towards an international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution. Leaders from around the world converged in Canada from April 23 – 29 in this penultimate meeting of the negotiations. (Photo Credit: #BreakFreeFromPlastic) 

Plastic waste exports increased to non-OECD countries in 2023 from 2022

Key Messages: In 2023, exports of plastic waste to non-OECD countries, Mexico, and Turkey increased from 2022. OECD countries promoting the “circular economy of plastics” myth are the largest plastic waste exporters, proving it to be a false concept as they cannot manage their own plastic waste.

Full Year 2023: Global exports to non-OECD countries from the top 10 exporting countries increased to 2.7 million tonnes/yr in 2023 from 2.6 million tonnes/yr in 2022.

Highest plastic waste exporters to non-OECD countries in 2023:

• Japan: Exported 541,897 tonnes.
• Netherlands: Exported 219,701 tonnes.
• United States: Exported 155,388 tonnes.
• Germany: Exported 174,966 tonnes.
• Australia: Exported 61,374 tonnes.
• Belgium: Exported 81,784 tonnes.
• UK: Exported 77,857 tonnes.

Japan continues to flood Asia with plastic waste in 2023.

• Non-OECD countries: Increased to 541 million kg/yr in 2023 from 519 million kg/yr in 2022.
• Malaysia: Increased to 189 million kg/yr in 2023 from 179 million kg/yr in 2022.
• Vietnam: Increased to 161 million kg/yr in 2023 from 152 million kg/yr in 2022.
• Taiwan: Stayed flat at 96 million kg/yr in 2023 compared to 98 million kg/yr in 2022.

Check here for these annual summaries and the latest monthly data. Full-year data for 2023 has been published by government agencies.

Check here for annual summaries and the latest monthly data. 

“Negotiating with the US and other oil states has felt like trying to negotiate with industry, always prioritizing profit over the well-being of people and the planet. In order to have an ambitious Treaty, we need a fundamental shift. We need intersessional work with the inclusion of Indigenous Peoples – who are rights holders with traditional knowledge and a deep understanding of sustainable resource management – as well as frontline and fenceline communities – who, for generations, have borne the brunt of environmental damage from fossil fuels and petrochemical production. By including these often-marginalized groups, we can move beyond ‘business as usual’ to achieve an ambitious Treaty that protects our environment, respects human rights, and fosters a more equitable and sustainable future for all of us and Mother Earth.”

-- Frankie Orona, Executive Director of the Society of Native Nations, on the recently concluded negotiations in Ottawa, Canada, for a Global Plastics Treaty. Most notably, delegates caved to pressure from the fossil fuel and plastics industry to not include discussions on primary plastic polymers, extraction, or production reduction measures in intersessional before the final meeting (INC-5) at the end of this year in Busan, Korea.

Fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists outnumbered national delegations, scientists, and indigenous peoples at the negotiations for the Global Plastics Treaty, according to a new analysis from the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). 196 lobbyists registered for INC-4, which represents a 37% increase from the previous meeting. These companies’ vested interests in perpetuating plastic consumption hinder meaningful progress towards a Global Plastics Treaty that addresses the full lifecycle of plastic, beginning from the extraction of raw materials. (Graphic Source: #BreakFreeFromPlastic)

Trashed: The Secret Life of Plastic Exports – by ABC News

Critics call out plastics industry over recycling "fraud" –by CBS Sunday Morning

Updates from INC-4 of the Global Plastics Treaty

Following the conclusion of the fourth meeting of the International Negotiating Committee (INC-4) in Ottawa, Canada, BAN’s Executive Director Jim Puckett shares his views on the progress and outcomes of this penultimate meeting.

Coming into INC-4, the atmosphere was one of muted hope. The initial optimism of many had been tarred. So far, the long INC road (1, 2, and 3) to create a global treaty on plastic pollution had not even been so much a bumpy one. Worse it was a journey trapped at the starting line. We were in a forestalled footrace of willing nations unable to even lift their step due to being shackled by an unwilling minority of participants that prevented the gathered majority from being able to leave the starting blocks. Here it was already INC-4 and the greatest advancement had been the very comprehensive zero draft created by the Secretariat following INC-2 in Paris. The draft had been exciting to most of us but elicited the fear of countries wishing a treaty aimed to reduce plastic production had never been considered, including China, India, Russia and Saudi Arabia -- countries that profit mightily from petrochemical plastic business-as-usual. 

March to End the Plastic Era. (Photo Credit: Ben Powless, Survivor Media Agency; #BreakFreeFromPlastic)

INC-3 in Nairobi was an utter stall with no negotiations at all and not even an agreement to carry on intersessional work to try to make up for the time lost. It is due to the consensus-led nature of the formation of international law, where all nations are invited to embark on the journey, that the lowest common denominator can easily prevail and low or no ambition powers hold power over the rest and become the monster in the room. 

At INC-4, this monster remained breathing loudly all week but could be heard rasping a bit more desperately as more and more influential countries were able to lay out their concrete plans to begin phasing out classes of toxic and avoidable plastics such as polystyrene, PVC, single and short-lived plastics, which received widespread support. The room could palpably feel that at last, we were able to get out of the swamp and make progress. 

In fact, the progress was more a feeling than reality as actual negotiation has only just begun at INC-4. Indeed, even more qualifiers and ideas were added, and while some redundancies were removed, the current text is longer than the previous multi-optioned bracketed text we began with. Additionally, it is very worrying that work to cap and reduce primary polymer production was placed very intentionally in the background with respect to agreed intersessional work. Nevertheless, the success of the meeting was measured by the fact that intersessional work will not be deterred and the topic areas chosen for this work were clearly the result of a compromise.  

Left: Pui Yi Wong and Jim Puckett of BAN with Yuyun Ismawati Drwiega, BAN Board Member and Senior Advisor at Nexus3 Foundation. Right: Jim Puckett with Aeshnina Azzahra of River Warrior Indonesia and GAIA Asia Pacific.

Two tracks of open-ended ad-hoc expert online meetings were not blocked or set aside. One is to proceed on financial, resource mobilization, and institutional work, and the other is focused on criteria for identifying chemicals of concern and avoidable plastics. These are to converge in a face-to-face meeting where the work will be digested and refined prior to the last INC scheduled in Busan, Korea. 

Many believe there is no way our work will be done by the end of INC-5 and even in the next months, while we are finding pace, the fragile process could still be disrupted by those with a profit motive and history of doing so. But for now, we are breathing and real hope returns of reaching a finish line signaling a turning back of the clock on the plastics crisis.

UK company fined huge sum for illegal waste exports

Roydon Resource Recovery Ltd, based in Manchester, UK, has been convicted of the illegal export of waste and ordered to pay nearly £870,000 in fines. The company unlawfully exported ten shipping containers containing 247 tonnes of waste to Poland, declared as green waste. Claimed to be clean plastics from household waste, the shipments were heavily contaminated with electronics, diapers, and oil canisters. They were discovered during stepped-up inspections in 2018 coordinated by the World Customs Organization’s Operation Demeter IV. The company’s director was also ordered to pay £10,000.

Illegal shipment stopped before export in Italy

Italian customs officials seized 82 tonnes of waste destined for Tunisia in the Tuscan port of Marina di Carrara, after a container’s weight aroused their suspicion. Upon opening the container that was declared to contain used textiles, they found plastic waste, household appliances, shoes, and toys, in addition to the discarded clothes. After this discovery, the officials inspected three other containers from the same company and found similar materials. The legal representative of the exporting company was reported to the judiciary for waste management and trafficking crimes. There is a history of waste trafficking between these countries, with the notable example of 280 containers of Italian household waste shipped to Tunisia in July 2020, which ultimately led to a former Tunisian environment minister and three other defendants being sentenced to three years in prison for their involvement.

INC-4 negotiating countries fail to respond to the magnitude of the plastics crisis – by Break Free From Plastic

Contamination Levels

The Basel Convention's 2019 Plastic Waste Amendments utilize the term "almost free from contamination" as one criterion for whether the plastic waste shipment will be uncontrolled. This term has not been given an international quantitative value, leaving the Parties to define it on a national basis. Enclosed are the known levels adopted by certain countries to date. If readers know of other country interpretations, please let us know.

-- Turning the Tide: A Look Into the European Union-to-Southeast Asia Waste Trafficking Wave – Report by UNODC

-- Policy Brief: Ending Waste Colonialism, Governing Plastic Pollution – Report by C4 Center

-- Amazon’s United States of Plastic – Report by Oceana

-- Branded: the Sachet Scourge in Asia: Exposing the top sachet polluting companies with brand audits – Report from Break Free From Plastic

-- Addressing the Issue Head-On – Measures on polymer production in the Global Plastics Treaty – Report by Environmental Investigation Agency

--  Adopt-a-Beach: 20 Years of Great Lakes Litter Data – Report by Alliance for the Great Lakes

-- The Arctic’s Plastic Crisis – Report by IPEN

-- Global producer responsibility for plastic pollution – Report by Win Cowger, Kathryn A. Willis, Sybil Bullock, Katie Conlon, Jorge Emmanuel, Lisa M. Erdle, Marcus Eriksen, Trisia A. Farrelly, Britta Denise Hardesty, Kristiina Kerge, Natalie Li, Yedan Li, Adam Liebman, Neil Tangri, Martin Thiel, Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez, Tony R. Walker, & Mengjiao Wang

-- Exposure to Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers and Risk of All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality – Report by Buyun Liu, MD, PhD; Hans-Joachim Lehmler, PhD; Ziyi Ye, BAgr; Xing Yuan, PhD; Yuxiang Yan, BS; Yuntian Ruan, BS; Yi Wang, BS; Yu Yang, BS; Shuhan Chen, BS; Wei Bao, MD, PhD

-- The contamination of in situ archaeological remains: A pilot analysis of microplastics in sediment samples using μFTIR – Report by Jeanette M. Rotchell, Freija Mendrik, Emma Chapman, Paul Flintoft, Ian Panter, Giulia Gallio, Christine McDonnell, Catriona R. Liddle, David Jennings, John Schofield

-- Do coral reefs act as sinks for microplastics? – Report by Marcelo O. Soares, Lucia Rizzo, Antonio Rodrigues Ximenes Neto, Yasmin Barros, José Eduardo Martinelli Filho, Tommaso Giarrizzo, Emanuelle F. Rabelo