In much of the world, the task of collecting, sorting and recycling plastics often falls to informal waste collectors who work for little money between fire and toxic fumes. As a milestone, the Nairobi agreement formally recognized for the first time the importance of waste collectors in the plastics economy.
“We waste collectors need to be involved in this process,” said Silvio Ruiz Grisales from Bogotá, Colombia, who started working in landfills at the age of 12. Now he is a leader in the Latin American and Caribbean network of waste collectors, a group that advocates better wages, working conditions and recognition.
“We work with the garbage 12, 14 or 16 hours a day,” he said. “It’s a poverty trap.”
Among other things, Wednesday’s agreement stipulates that any global treaty must be legally binding and that it must govern the entire life cycle of plastics, from production to disposal, recycling and reuse. Delegates said they hoped to model the Paris climate agreement treaty, under which countries set binding targets but can achieve those targets through a range of different policies.
The treaty should also address packaging design to reduce plastic use, improve recycling and make technical and financial aid available to developing countries. Under Wednesday’s agreement, it must also tackle microplastics, the small plastic waste created by the breakdown of plastic over time. Microplastics have been discovered by scientists in deep ocean waters, crustaceans, drinking water and even falling rain.
During the negotiations, some of those points met objections from the United States, Japan and India, among others, according to three people close to the talks and not authorized to discuss negotiation details publicly.
Japan initially filed a competing resolution largely limited to tackling marine plastics. India threatened to derail the negotiations on the final day, insisting that any action should be on a “voluntary basis”, according to a list of demands personally submitted by the Indian delegation and reviewed by DailyExpertNews.