Nearly every country in the world has agreed upon a legally binding framework to reduce the pollution from plastic waste except for the United States, UN environmental officials say.
An agreement on tracking thousands of types of plastic wasteemerged Friday at the end of a two-week meeting of UN-backed conventions onplastic waste and toxic, hazardous chemicals.
Discarded plastic clutters pristine land, floats in hugemasses in oceans and rivers and entangles wildlife, sometimes with deadlyresults .
Rolph Payet of the United Nations Environment Program saidthe “historic” agreement linked to the 186-country, UN-supportedBasel Convention means that countries will have to monitor and track themovements of plastic waste outside their borders.
The deal affects products used in a broad array ofindustries, such as health care, technology, aerospace, fashion, food andbeverages.
“It’s sending a very strong political signal to therest of the world — to the private sector, to the consumer market — that weneed to do something,” Payet said.
“Countries have decided to do something which willtranslate into real action on the ground.”
Countries will have to figure out their own ways of adheringto the accord, Payet said.
Even the few countries that did not sign it, like the UnitedStates, could be affected by the accord when they ship plastic waste tocountries that are on board with the deal.
Payet credited Norway for leading the initiative, whichfirst was presented in September.
The time from that proposal to the approval of a deal set ablistering pace by traditional UN standards for such an accord.
The framework “is historic in the sense that it islegally binding,” Payet said.
“They (the countries)have managed to use an existing international instrument to put in place thosemeasures.”
The agreement is likely to lead to customs agents being onthe lookout for electronic waste or other types of potentially hazardous wastemore than before.”There is going to be a transparent andtraceable system for the export and import of plastic waste,” Payet said.