Page 49 - Plastics News September 2024
P. 49
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Plastic Pollution Study Ignores Impact of ‘Waste
Colonialism,’ Says Break Free From Plastics
A plastic pollution. Despite high plastic consump-
new study on plastic pollution from Uni-
versity of Leeds researchers in the Unit-
tion, macro-plastic pollution is a comparatively
ed Kingdom used artificial intelligence to
model waste management in more than 50,000 small issue in the Global North, according to the
researchers, because of comprehensive waste
municipalities around the world. Among other management systems. And that raised the hack-
findings, the researchers found that more than les of activist organization Break Free From Plas-
two-thirds of global plastic pollution comes from tics, which accused the study of perpetuating
uncollected waste and that over 50% of all plastic misleading narratives and ignoring the impact of
pollution was burned in homes, on streets, and “waste colonialism.”
in dumpsites with no environmental considera-
tions. The study published in Nature, "A local-to- The world’s plastic pollution hotspots
global emissions inventory of macroplastic pollu- Mapping and quantifying plastic waste mate-
tion," also revealed that macro-plastic pollution rial flows is necessary to establish a baseline
— defined as plastic objects larger than 5 mm “to inform Plastics Treaty obligations,” note the
(about 3/16 of an inch) — is especially rampant researchers, referencing negotiations currently
in the Global South, which accounts for more underway by the United Nations to establish
than two-thirds of the annual 57 million tons of a legally binding global treaty to prevent plas-
PL
September 2024
September 2024 PLASTICS NEWSASTICS NEWS 49 51
