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Policy positions

Plastic pollution and poverty

A UN briefing document to guide international negotiations on a global treaty to tackle plastic pollution

2022 Available in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French

A man - wearing a blue shirt, face mask and red rubber gloves - clears up plastic bottles by the River Kalamu bank in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

A man collects plastic waste from the River Kalamu in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

In March 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly voted to start negotiations on an ‘international legally binding instrument’ to end plastic pollution.

A global plastics treaty provides an excellent opportunity to lessen the impact of plastic pollution on people living in poverty, by reducing the use of plastics and seizing the opportunity to create improved livelihoods from a circular economy in plastics. 

This briefing paper is for policy makers, negotiators and NGOs involved in UN treaty negotiations and aims to:

  • explain the links between plastics and poverty
  • highlight the impacts of plastic pollution on health, environments and livelihoods in low- and middle-income countries
  • outline the role of the informal waste sector 
  • explore what a ‘just transition’ and a safe, inclusive circular economy would mean for the informal waste sector and communities in low- and middle-income countries who depend on plastic 

The resource sets out how a global plastics treaty could address these issues. It presents decision-makers with six key areas to consider and four initial demands to inform discussions at the first negotiating committee in November 2022 and beyond.

Tearfund will be present throughout the negotiation process. These demands will form the basis of Tearfund’s advocacy with and on behalf of those whose lives are being most impacted by plastic pollution.

Plastic pollution is causing a social emergency, as well as an environmental one. Between 2000 and 2019, plastic waste generation more than doubled. Today, half of all plastic is designed to be used just once. And yet some 2 billion people in low- and middle-income countries don’t have access to solid waste collection. They have little other option but to burn or dump it, with wide-ranging and extremely harmful results. Plastic pollution is directly impacting the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, and contributing directly to the climate emergency.

In part one, we explore these impacts through six different lenses – waste pickers, agriculture, recycling facilities, urban areas, tourism and fishing – which demonstrate the breadth and gravity of the social emergency plastic pollution is causing.

In part two, we explore how people living in poverty find themselves trapped in a vicious cycle where plastic packaging appears essential to their daily life but has devastating effects on their health and livelihoods. They are caught in a plastics trap, and that trap needs to be sprung by reducing production of and reliance upon plastic. As we transition towards a circular economy we must ensure no one gets left behind and that people living in poverty can access the goods that they need and want without harming their health and livelihoods.

In part three, we explore the contribution of waste pickers in tackling plastic pollution and the challenges and opportunities they face. At least 20 million people earn an income as waste pickers, collecting, sorting and recycling plastic. They are the backbone of the recycling system, collecting approximately 60 per cent of all the plastic gathered for recycling globally. While plastic production must be reduced, that shouldn’t mean waste pickers are left behind. There is a better way forward.

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