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Plastics Treaty INC4
The fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-4), took place from 23 to 29 April 2024 at the Shaw Center in Ottawa, Canada. The main issue on the agenda was to advance negotiations on the basis of the Revised draft text of the zero draft. IPEN POs from South Asia actively participated in the conference to push for treaty text to address plastics throughout its life cycle. This meeting aims to share the proceedings of the INC4 with a perspective of regional positions and challenges. IPEN POs from the South Asia region who participated in the conference will share updates, progress, concerns, challenges, and the plan for the Global plastic treaty. This debrief session will also act as a platform for the POs to strategize as a region for the upcoming INC5.
Eco circular Foundation, India; ESDO, Bangladesh; JJS, Bangladesh; and Toxics Link, India participated in the meeting.
See the meeting report from IISD here and updates from IPEN here.
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Upcoming Events
- Plastics Treaty INC-5
25 November – 01 December
Location: Busan, Republic of Korea
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Newest IPEN Reports
Hazardous Chemicals in Plastic Products
Both the environment in Africa and the Arabic region and the human health of Africans and people from Arabic countries suffer from toxic chemicals and imported wastes, including illegal wastes, more than in developed countries.
This study shows that toxic chemicals are present in toys, kitchen utensils, and other consumer products purchased from African and Arabic region markets in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Jordan, Kenya, Morocco, Syria, Tanzania, and Tunisia.
Plastic Waste Fuels
IPEN studies show how policy is driving massive investment in plastic waste-to-fuel processing, and that exports are threatening waste management in ASEAN countries and undermining the Basel Convention and climate change commitments.
Plastic Poisons the Circular Economy
IPEN published a number of studies showing significant obstacles for countries seeking to implement safe plastic circular economies. The studies reveal that countries are unable to handle large volumes of diverse plastics waste streams safely, and the reality that, without regulations requiring plastic ingredients to be labeled, countries are blindly allowing known toxic chemicals onto their markets in plastic products.
Plastic pellets found on beaches all over the world contain toxic chemicals
Preproduction plastics as pellets, or "nurdles", can carry many different chemicals, both those added to the plastics and pollutants that attach (sorb) to them in the environment. Often lost during production, transportation, and storage, pellets have been found on beaches all over the world since the 1970s. This study of plastic pellets gathered from beaches in 23 different countries contained many chemicals of concern, some in very high concentrations.
Widespread chemical contamination of recycled plastic pellets globally
Because almost all plastics contain toxic chemicals, recycling processes can perserve and can even generate toxic chemicals, such as dioxins. In this study, pellets made from recycled HDPE, intended for use in new products, were purchased from 24 recyclers in 23 countries and analyzed for 18 substances. The large number of toxic chemicals in many of the samples highlights the need to rethink recycling to ensure it does not perpetuate harms..
Plastic’s Toxic Chemical Problem: A Growing public health crisis
This summary of our two plastic pellets reports encapsulate the broad issues related to toxic chemicals in plastics and the concerns with recycling processes that can perserve or generate toxic chemicals.
Plastic Waste Management Hazards
Plastic waste has become an unprecedented pollution issue, blanketing our planet in the petrochemical remnants of plastic production. This report examines current and emerging methods by which plastic waste is managed globally and questions whether any of them present a solution to the rapidly accelerating generation of plastic waste. In short, they don't and the only long-term answer is to produce less plastic.
Regional Hub
Toxics Link
Based in India
Regional Coordinator: Tripti Arora
Contact: sahub@ipen.org
Toxics Link is an environmental NGO, dedicated to bring toxics-related information into the public domain, both relating to struggles and problems at the grassroots level as well as global information to the local levels. We work with other groups around the country as well as internationally in an understanding that this will help bring the experience of the ground to the fore, and lead to a more meaningful articulation of issues.
Read more about Toxics Link
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