Coming years ‘critical’ to slash plastic pollution: UN

The world must halve single-use plastics and slash throwaway consumption to stem the tide of environmental pollution, according to a UN report yesterday that warns the next few years are critical.

Concern is growing about the impacts of microplastics -- produced when plastic products break down in the environment -- which have been found from the deepest oceans trenches to top of Mount Everest.

In humans, they have been detected in blood, breast milk and placentas.

The report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) comes two weeks before negotiators from nearly 200 countries meet in Paris for a new round of negotiations aimed at reaching a legal agreement next year to end plastic pollution.

It lays out a three-pronged plan based on reuse, recycling and diversifying the materials used -- to help slash plastic pollution 80 percent by 2040 overall and cut single-use plastic production by half.

The report cited research estimating plastic could emit 19 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.

That would essentially prevent the world from meeting its Paris Agreement commitment to limit the rise in the planet's average temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level.

"The way we produce, use and dispose of plastics is polluting ecosystems, creating risks for human health and destabilising the climate," said Inger Andersen, UNEP executive director.

She said the roadmap laid out in the report "dramatically reduces these risks, through adopting a circular approach that keeps plastics out of ecosystems, out of our bodies and in the economy".

In 2020, approximately 238 million metric tonnes (mmt) of waste from short-lived plastics -- like packaging that ends up in municipal waste -- was generated worldwide.