The Politics of Plastic Pollution and the Impact on the Global South

Plastic waste is a social justice and a human rights issue that threatens food security, human health, plastic-aggravated flooding, and economic development in addition to being an environmental and ecological problem. Countries within the Global South are disproportionately impacted by plastic pollution, so how did this waste inequality manifest itself in the Global South, and how are countries driving the solutions to tackle the issue? In this blog post, we cover what’s happening on a global scale to end plastic pollution, and what we can do as consumers to fight the plastic pandemic.

End Plastic Pollution: 2024’s Earth Day theme

This year’s Earth Day (Monday, April 22nd) is focused on the unwavering commitment to end the plastic pollution crisis, and to reduce the production of ALL plastics by 60% by 2040. 

By the end of 2024, governments around the world are coming together to negotiate and develop a multilateral legally-binding Global Plastics Treaty (through the UN Environmental Assembly) to adopt a resolution to end plastic pollution that will change the way we produce and consume plastic products.

Capitalism, Covid-19 and waste colonisation

At a global level, less than 10% of about 6,300 million tonnes of plastic waste generated between 1950 and 2015 has been recycled. Almost 79% has ended up in landfills or the environment; the remaining 12% of waste was incinerated. According to the World Economic Forum, around 2% of the world’s plastic is traded. This is because it still typically cheaper to export waste rather than develop infrastructure to process waste locally.

According to the UNCTAD website, global exports of plastics have doubled in value over the last twenty years, reaching nearly $1.2 trillion in 2021, meaning if plastics were a nation, they would rank as the fourth-largest exporter in the world if no other goods were traded. These figures may even be higher as there is still a lack of adequate transparency or monitoring of the global plastic waste trade.

Figure 1: If the global plastics trade were a country, it would be the 4th largest exporter

The global economy as it is today has created a wildly unequal waste system with lower-income countries being at the receiving end of the world’s soaring plastic waste. Since 1988, more than a quarter of a billion tonnes of plastic waste was exported around the globe; one third of which originated from the USA, Japan and Germany. The EU is also one of the biggest culprits.

Up until recently China was the main importer of plastic waste, but it banned waste imports in 2018 for environmental and human protection through a policy known as the “National Sword”. As most global trade in plastic waste happens at a regional level, neighbouring countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Türkiye started to import large volumes of waste. Unfortunately, many countries did not, and still do not, have sufficient waste management infrastructure.

The amount of mismanaged plastic waste worldwide that ends up in landfills is forecast to double by 2060. This “waste colonialism” places the burden of plastic and toxic waste on the environment, communities, and informal waste sector predominantly in the Global South. Many communities, especially those based in rural areas, have inadequate access to waste services and end up burning waste residentially or in open dumpsites without emissions controls. Domestic and open burning of plastic waste is a major source of air pollutants and has a huge effect on human health.  

As economies grow, there are more new markets for cheap and disposable plastic products. In Sub-Saharan Africa, plastics use in 2060 is projected to be over six times larger than in 2019. Other factors have also contributed to the boom in plastics. In Asia and globally, the COVID-19 pandemic also caused a spike in plastic waste. During the period, there was also a breakdown in waste management systems and the informal sector in South Asia.

As a consequence of this ‘plastic pandemic’, plastic-free policies are spreading across Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Vietnam’s action plan against plastic pollution

Vietnam is the world’s fourth-largest marine plastic emitter. The government has set out an ambitious national plan to tackle the challenge posed by plastic waste. In 2022, Vietnam became the first country in Southeast Asia to enact an “Extended Producer Responsibility” (EPR) law. This regulation requires producers and importers to manage their products’ full lifecycle including collection, sorting, recycling and final disposal. The effective implementation of the regulation requires investment in recycling infrastructure, effective enforcement and also buy-in and compliance by businesses. Approximately three quarters of plastic waste in Vietnam comes from household consumption. The Vietnamese government plans to ban the production and import of plastic bags for domestic use by 2026, and most single-use plastic products by 2031.

With six Southeast Asian nations featured among the top ten global marine plastic polluters, there is a pressing need for enhanced cooperation within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) of which Vietnam is a member. In 2021, the body launched the Regional Action Plan for Combating Marine Debris, which will facilitate the pooling of resources and expertise.

A plastic-free movement and refill revolution in Chile

Chile was the first South American nation to ban commercial use of plastic bags in 2018. The Association of Plastic Manufacturers (Asiplas) estimated that Chile was using more than 3.4 billion plastic bags a year – the equivalent of each resident using more than 200 annually.

With the packaging sector being the largest generator of single-use plastic waste ­in the world, Chile also implemented the first national-level legislation in the world in 2022 to implement a ban on delivery by food and beverage companies of single-use products (SUPs). This included cups, cutlery, stir sticks and Styrofoam utensils. The law also stipulates that by 2025, at least 15% of all plastic collected and recycled within Chile must be incorporated into disposable plastic bottles. The ban of SUBPs in Chile was facilitated by a broad concern among the general public, which culminated in the national government taking action.

When the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment was launched in 2018, by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the UN Environment Programme, one of its aims was to eliminate “unnecessary plastics” by 2025. Chile was one of the first six countries in the world to sign up.

A Santiago social enterprise, Algramo, set up by a young Chilean student has been reducing plastic waste as well as addressing social inequality. In 2011, the company set up small stores in the outskirts of the city (chiefly in low-income areas) with vending machines dispensing household products. Customers bring reusable containers to refill essentials such as shampoo, washing-up liquid and detergent. The technology has since been transferred to New York City and the UK.

The power of activism and innovation in the Global South

Surging South-based activism in plastic pollution is spurring governments in the Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean to try to rein in plastic pollution. The Global South is rich in sustainability solutions with innovators offering actionable aims across different sectors – for example, a Jakarta-based company Evoware in Indonesia develops alternative packaging solutions from seaweed, and Gjenge, a Nairobi company (Kenya), makes building materials from plastic waste. On their website, Greenpeace cites numerous examples of sustainable approaches of reuse & refill systems from India, Kenya, Columbia, Malaysia, Vietnam and South Africa.

Evidence from all regions, sectors, and academic pursuits

Although the politics of plastics is a growing field of inquiry, most academic research has been focussed on marine and microplastics pollution, rather than general waste and pollution on land. A recent report shows that research into how the transition to a circular economy could create jobs and boost economies has been largely biased towards those countries based in the Global North. Research and subsequent policies should involve, acknowledge and address the rights and safety for those working in the informal waste sector. Approximately, 20 million people around the world are involved in the informal waste recycling sector.

Plastics and their lifecycle have to be thought of as systemic, as they contribute to climate change and pollution from the moment their raw materials are extracted from the ground. In response to the previous UNEP assessment, scientific experts launched a declaration calling for governance of plastics throughout their life cycle focuses on prevention, reduction and redesigning problematic plastics out of the global economy. In their declaration, they describe the impacts of plastics as being similar to climate change, biodiversity loss, ozone layer depletion and the effects of persistent organic pollutants, all of which now have multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) in place. They also call for traditional knowledge, innovation and practices of indigenous and local communities to be incorporated into solutions.

So how do we move towards a plastic-free world?

The United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee convenes this week (21 –30 April 2024) in Ottawa, Canada, and then again in the latter part of the year, 25 November –1 December 2024, in Busan, Republic of Korea. More than 175 countries have expressed their support for a global treaty, representing every region of the globe.

The negotiations will be challenging. Plastic producer’s will have vested interests in keeping regulations focused on waste rather than ending production. Solutions must also take into account of societal issues (poverty, inequality, health and well-being) in the context of sustainable development, in addition to gathering knowledge from effective local small-scale solutions and traditional approaches so we can expand upon them. Greater public and private capital and partnerships between sectors will also be needed, to transition and drive innovation in materials and waste solutions to build a world less reliant on plastics.

As a complex societal and global issue, it calls for collective activism, collaboration, and shared responsibility. Multinational businesses, plastic manufacturers, NGOs, social entrepreneurs, filmmakers, artists, activists, consumers, trade unionists, local community groups, public health experts, academics from various disciplines, in addition to international negotiators, and policymakers, can all play a part in promoting analysis, awareness, advocacy and action in the fight against plastic pollution.

What action can I take this Earth Day?

Here are four actions you can make today:

1. Sign up to the Global Plastic Treaty 
2. Visit the EarthDay.org Global Map of Events to see if there is an event near you. 
3. Watch ‘The Problem with Plastics | Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez | TED’ on YouTube
4. Sign up to one of Earth Day.org petitions.
5. Work on your own Plastic Pollution Footprint Tracker through the EarthDay.org Primer and Action toolkit

Further reading:

1. Ahead of INC-4, UNEP Publishes Revised Draft Text of Plastic Treaty (SDG Knowledge Hub)
2. The Global Plastics Policy Centre at the University of Portsmouth (UK) Global Plastics Treaty Page. 
3. Outcomes of the Global Plastics Summit (October 2023, Bangkok)- Economist Impact 
4. Rajendra, A. (2024). Skills in ‘unskilled’ work: a case of waste work in Central India. Third World Quarterly, 45(4), 658–676.
5. Fevrier K. (2022) Informal Waste Recycling Economies in the Global South and the Chimera of Green CapitalismAntipode, Volume 54(5), 1585 -1606

The views and opinions expressed on this blog post are solely those of the author. 

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