Manila, Philippines— The University of Leeds in the United Kingdom published on Wednesday an article in the Nature Journal stating that more than two-thirds of the annual 57 million tons of plastic pollution comes from countries in the Global South, positioning India as a new plastic pollution hotspot along with Nigeria and Indonesia and stating that Sub-Saharan Africa could become the world’s largest source of plastic pollution in the next few decades. In its methodology, the paper excludes the pollution caused by plastic production and neglects to recognize that many of the listed countries are major importers of plastic waste from high-income nations.
The study fails to acknowledge the impacts of waste colonialism, the practice of exporting waste from higher-income countries to lower-income nations, effectively outsourcing their pollution. Data from the Basel Action Network (BAN) shows that Malaysia, Indonesia, India and other less industrialized nations are among the top destinations for plastic waste generated in the Global North. These same countries then get blamed in the study for being top plastic polluters.
“If the Global North is serious about ending plastic pollution, they must stop the millions of tons of plastic waste exports to the Global South,” says Pui Yi Wong with the Basel Action Network (Malaysia). “This must include plastic scraps, ‘hidden’ plastic waste in electronics, synthetic textiles, waste fuels, and other products, as well as illegally trafficked plastic waste. The plastic waste exports from the Global North have brought along waste syndicates, cross-border crimes, and illegality, as well as loss of natural spaces and impacts on people's health in the receiving nations. This injustice of waste colonialism must end.”
“By excluding many significant sources of plastic pollution and ignoring the devastating consequences of massive plastic waste exports sent from higher-income countries to low- and middle-income countries, this study creates an extremely dangerous and false impression that the USA and European countries have little role in creating the plastics crisis,” added Therese Karlsson, Science Advisor with the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) (Sweden).
“The authors acknowledge the significant data gaps in their study, including the deliberate exclusion of high-income country plastic waste exports - but this is insufficient. Evidence shows that Global North countries, including the UK, house companies driving plastic production and pollution, while also being top plastic waste exporters. These exports cause significant environmental and human health harms (including illicit waste trafficking), and take up limited global recycling capacity available as a consequence. In 2023, the UK exported 568 million kg/yr of 3915 plastic waste. An increase compared to 2020, which is the data year used in this study. Whilst acknowledging data gaps helps communicate the degree of scientific uncertainty of findings – there is no uncertainty as to the harms and responsibility Global North countries, including the UK, have in resolving the global plastic crisis. This includes high-income countries stopping the export of their plastic waste and supporting an ambitious plastics treaty which turns off the tap.” said Lauren Weir, Senior Ocean Campaigner at the Environmental Investigation Agency UK (EIA).
This is not the first time Global South countries have been unfairly blamed for the plastic pollution crisis. In 2022, seven years after publishing a similar report, the Ocean Conservancy retracted its study and issued an apology, acknowledging the need to address the root cause of plastic waste and the role of developed countries. In 2021, a research paper by Lourens J.J. Meijer (formerly with The Ocean Cleanup) also pushed for this misleading narrative and received a strong response from frontline organizations and other BFFP members.
The narrow focus of this new report, centred on uncollected waste and open burning, also disregards the pollution caused by the extraction of raw materials and plastic production, which at its current rate threatens humanity’s ability to keep global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius due to its greenhouse gas emissions.
“The study defines ‘plastic emissions’ in the narrowest possible way,” says Swathi Seshadri of the Centre for Financial Accountability (India). “One of the critical issues with this study is that it assumes plastic pollution begins when the product is discarded rather than with the source material: primary plastic polymers, which impacts people, animals, soil, water, and every other naturally existing life forms on this planet.”
This was supported by Arpita Bhagat with the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (India) who emphasized the high greenhouse gas emissions during production. “It also discounts both OECD definition as well as the mandate of UNEA resolution 5/14 calling for a comprehensive full life cycle approach to addressing plastic pollution.”
The study’s focus on national-level data also obscures the critical role that multinational corporations and the plastic industry play globally by perpetuating a shift from traditional non-toxic packaging to millions of tons of single-use plastic and food containers. Among the most insidious of these industry practices is selling products in throw-away sachets, which are the most common plastic discards found in brand audits in Africa and Asia. Moreover, a recent Asia-focused brand audit report ranked the Global North corporations Unilever, Nestlé and Procter & Gamble among the top sachet polluters.
“One of the most polluting packaging materials is multi-layered plastic (MLP) and small sachets,” adds Nalini Shekhar of Hasiru Dala (India). “MLP is almost impossible to collect if littered, painful to sort and store, difficult to use as co-processing fuel and finally ends up producing millions of tons of unmanageable waste. However, I am hoping for the political will to stop production of single-use plastic and force phasing out MLP.”
The researchers conclude that plastic pollution is a global human health issue and that solid waste management can reduce plastic pollution and improve the lives of billions. Yet they overlook a crucial issue — there are no effective solutions to handle or recycle collected or recovered plastic waste. Plastic production reduction is the only effective way to tackle the plastic pollution crisis.
In November 2024, UN member-states will gather in Busan, South Korea, for the fifth round of negotiations for a global plastics treaty (INC-5). This is a rare opportunity to end plastic pollution systematically through an international legally binding instrument that addresses plastic pollution beyond waste management, and through the drastic reduction in global plastic production, the scaling of reuse systems, and bans on toxic chemicals. Given the report’s intent to inform the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations, this study dangerously paints a false narrative and fails to inspire much-needed systemic solutions.
###
Note to Editors:
- More quotes from environment activists and experts are available here.
- Photos showing sachet and waste trade impacts in Global South countries as well as reuse solutions, are available here. For photo credits, please see the captions file.
About BFFP — #BreakFreeFromPlastic is a global movement envisioning a future free from plastic pollution. Since its launch in 2016, more than 2,700 organizations and 11,000 individual supporters worldwide have joined the movement to demand massive reductions in single-use plastics and push for lasting solutions to the plastic pollution crisis. BFFP member organizations and individuals share the values of environmental protection and social justice and work together through a holistic approach to bring about systemic change. This means tackling plastic pollution across the whole plastics value chain – from extraction to disposal – focusing on prevention rather than cure and providing effective solutions. www.breakfreefromplastic.org.
Global Press Contacts:
- Caro Gonzalez | Caro@breakfreefromplastic.org / news@breakfreefromplastic.org
Regional Press Contacts:
- Africa: Carissa Marnce | Carissa@no-burn.org
- Asia Pacific: Eah Antonio | Eah@breakfreefromplastic.org
- South Asia: Devayani Khare | devayani@breakfreefromplastic.org
- Latin America: Camila Aguilera | Camila@no-burn.org
- Europe: Bethany Spendlove Keeley | Bethany@breakfreefromplastic.org
- United States and Canada: Brett Nadrich | Brett@breakfreefromplastic.org
