The Heinrich Böll Foundation and the Break Free From Plastic movement recently published the international English edition of the Plastic Atlas, holding launch events in the European Parliament in Brussels (quotes EC-FVP Frans Timmermans, MEP Bas Eickhout further down), and in Washington D.C. and Manila.
The Plastic Atlas contains more than 49 detailed infographics covering a broad range of topics regarding the plastic pollution crisis looking along the entire value chain of plastic. The atlas highlights the scale of the crisis, and the global impacts of plastic production, consumption and disposal on other key global challenges such as human health and climate change. It also outlines the role of plastic for key industrial sectors such as agriculture and tourism and describes the corporate interests and drivers behind the plastic crisis. Finally, the Plastic Atlas presents an overview of key plastic-free regulations, zero waste solutions and a snapshot of the growing global movement working towards a future free from plastic pollution.
The Heinrich Böll Foundation’s President Barbara Unmüßig called for global action to address the crisis at source: “A ban on single-use plastics makes sense but will not be sufficient to end one of the biggest environmental crises of the planet. Plastics began as a waste product of the petrochemical industry. Today, ExxonMobil, BASF, Eni, INEOS, and Dow are the biggest plastic producers worldwide with sales totaling 420 billion Euros per year,” Unmüßig said. “Instead of cutting down on this part of the business they have clear targets to increase plastic production over the coming years. The unlimited availability of cheap oil and gas as raw materials for plastic production prevents effective recycling strategies and blocks a real circular economy. Regional and global politics must hold the plastic industry accountable and define a clear and strict framework for the reduction of overall plastic production and consumption. However, circular-economy strategies are needed to make a lasting impact”, Unmüßig emphasized.
Lili Fuhr, Head of the International Environmental Policy Division of the Heinrich Böll Foundation and project leader for the Plastic Atlas said: “Since 99 percent of all plastics are made of fossil fuels and produce enormous amounts of greenhouse gas emissions along the entire lifecycle of plastic, it is clear that the solutions to the plastic and climate crisis need to go hand in hand. The petrochemical industry is planning a massive expansion of the plastic production infrastructure to flood the global market with yet more waste and toxins. Governments in Europe and North America must not allow this expansion to go ahead. As a first step, the EU must work to ban the import of fracked hydrocarbon feedstock for plastics from the US.”
Break Free From Plastic Global Coordinator, Von Hernandez, stated: “The atlas shows that since China’s ban on importing scrap plastic, significant quantities of low-quality plastic waste is being exported to countries in Southeast Asia such as Malaysia and Indonesia, where local recyclers are ill-equipped to safely and effectively handle these practically unrecyclable materials. Whilst much of the plastic is being dumped or incinerated it is counted towards recycling figures in Europe and North America.”
“As plastic production is predicted to increase, the global corporations who continue to create products designed for the garbage heap need to take responsibility for the plastic pollution crisis. This atlas demonstrates how there are key actions [that] need to be taken across the plastics value chain to tackle this problem,” said Von Hernandez.