The UN wants to drastically reduce plastic pollution by 2040. Here’s how

William Brangham William Brangham

Lorna Baldwin Lorna Baldwin

Harry Zahn Harry Zahn

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As plastic waste piles up in the world's landfills, sewer systems and oceans, the United Nations has set a goal to reduce plastic pollution by 80 percent by the year 2040. Inger Andersen, head of the United Nations Environment Programme, joins William Brangham to discuss the upcoming negotiations over how to realize this goal.

John Yang:

Plastic waste is piling up in the world's landfills, sewer systems and in the ocean. As William Brangham reports, the United Nations has set a goal of sharply reducing plastic pollution by 2040.

William Brangham:

Lodged at the bottom of the sea or floating on top of it, many of the world's waterways are clogged with plastic. This manmade non-biodegradable substance is hurting wildlife. And it's showing up almost everywhere we look.

Researchers in Brazil recently discovered plastic melted into rocks on a remote island, it's circulating in the air we breathe, it's made its way into our very bloodstream. The plastic problem is not new, but its reach seems to have no limits.

430 metric tons of plastic is produced each year, two-thirds of which almost instantly after being used becomes garbage. Plastic production is set to triple by 2060 to try and limit this flow of waste.

Espen Barth eide, UNEA President: I see no objections. It is so decided.

William Brangham:

Last year in Nairobi, Kenya, 193 nations agreed the world must get the plastic problem under control.

Inger Andersen, Executive Director, U.N. Environment Program:

And we will have a strong global international and comprehensive framework on plastic pollution.

William Brangham:

The U.N. also recently released this report laying out the concrete steps needed to do it, "Turning off the Tap: How the world can end plastic pollution and create a circular economy." It aims to slash plastic pollution by 80 percent by 2040.

How to realize that goal is the task of global delegates meeting in Paris next week to work on a legally binding agreement. The head of the United Nations Environment Program Inger Andersen will lead the negotiations. I spoke with her recently.

Inger Andersen, thank you so much for being here. Before we get to the solutions that you're talking about, I wonder if we could just talk a little bit about the problem. I mean, here especially in the U.S., but worldwide we have heard this phrase, reduce, reuse and recycle for what feels like a generation. And yet we still haven't gotten our hands around this problem. Why is that?

Inger Andersen:

Well, I guess it is fairly hard. This recycle story is not as simple as it sounds when I put my plastic toothpaste to that is now empty in my recycling bin. It doesn't always make its way.

In fact, globally, we produce about 430 million tons of plastic a year, globally speaking and 9 percent of that just percent % ends up being recycled. So, it's clearly something that we need to deal with. And recycling is not the only answer. We need to rethink the entire system of plastic production.

William Brangham:

Walk me through some of the details there. How do we then try to divert this tide to a more productive and healthy stream?

Inger Andersen:

Let's think about it, we liquefy a lot of stuff that in just 20 years ago was not liquid, let's take soap for laundry detergent, it's largely liquid, certainly in the U.S. market, it used to be powder, and therefore it could be transported in a carton box. Let's think about soap that we wash our hands with it used to be in a bar. And now we need the convenience of one pump.

We have to ask ourselves if all that is worth it, when we understand that that liquid application of the product for our convenience, yes, but it is very, very inconvenient for the environment. So, we need to rethink and redesign the products themselves. We need to make sure that we minimize that wasteful single use plastic bag that we're going to be using for 10 minutes as we carry five tomatoes home from the store.

And then thereafter, depending on the kind of polymer it could be between 100 and 1,000 years in the landfill. That's just not very efficient use of a scarce resource.

But I think that there are certainly industry leaders that are saying, look, this is actually something that if we don't get it right, it detracts from our shareholder value. And it detracts from the pride that our workers have in this product if it's fobbing out around in the in the ocean. This is not good for business, it's not good for the brand. So let's find solutions to it.

William Brangham:

Some of what your report is calling for is the creation of a circular economy around plastics. Is that possible when we know though the plastic as you're describing keeps breaking down in the environment? Are those things compatible?

Inger Andersen:

So I think that there are many things that are ready now we can just exit but no circularity is not the solution, but it's one of the elements of a solution. And that means that take back schemes, whether it's extended producer responsibility or whether it's municipal take back schemes. There are many, many things that we've seen across different countries.

In Chile, for example, which is a poor country than the U.S. of course, you buy a bottle and that is yours for keeps and it has an electronic little gadgets so that when you go to the machine, the machine knows that it's your bottle, and you put in the money that you want, and you get the detergent from the machine that you want.

And if you can only afford this much, that's what you get. And if you can afford more, you can buy more. So, we feel schemes are very interesting. So I think that it we have to think across the entire chain, but circularity will be part of it.

William Brangham:

When you look at these upcoming negotiations on this issue, what stands out to you as the potential biggest roadblocks to this type of change that you're talking about?

Inger Andersen:

I think that any systems change in this size is one that is difficult. So my concern will be that there may be in some locations and some member states and desire to just focus on the Waste Management. But we need to look at the whole thing.

But the good thing is that I think across the political spectrum from left to right, and across the world, there is a desire to find solution. And that's unique. It's very much similar to the ozone negotiations that we had back in the late 70s and early 80s, where it was clear that we needed to exit CFCs chlorofluorocarbons, these chemicals that degraded the ozone layers, and were opening human health to cancers and ourselves to runaway climate change and impacts.

At the time, it was said it's impossible. How can you change the freons that are enabling our cooling systems and our air conditioners and our fire retardants and our spray cans and then we did it so it is difficult but when we do it right, we can do this and it is exactly the same on the plastic side.

William Brangham:

All right, Inger Andersen of the United Nations Environment Program. Thank you so much for being here.

Inger Andersen:

Thank you for having me.

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William Brangham William Brangham

William Brangham is a correspondent and producer for PBS NewsHour in Washington, D.C. He joined the flagship PBS program in 2015, after spending two years with PBS NewsHour Weekend in New York City.

Lorna Baldwin Lorna Baldwin

Lorna Baldwin is an Emmy and Peabody award winning producer at the PBS NewsHour. In her two decades at the NewsHour, Baldwin has crisscrossed the US reporting on issues ranging from the water crisis in Flint, Michigan to tsunami preparedness in the Pacific Northwest to the politics of poverty on the campaign trail in North Carolina. Farther afield, Baldwin reported on the problem of sea turtle nest poaching in Costa Rica, the distinctive architecture of Rotterdam, the Netherlands and world renowned landscape artist, Piet Oudolf.

Harry Zahn Harry Zahn