COP29 and INC-5: A tale of two conferences and missed opportunities?
Plastic is without doubt one of the marvels of the modern world. However, with alarm bells ringing about the global scale of plastic pollution and the unknown impact on living organisms of long-term exposure to microplastic, it is clear that we need better control of this versatile material that we just can’t live without.
Talks at INC-5 in Busan, South Korea, to secure the world’s first treaty to tackle plastic waste and pollution ended in failure at the end of November. Despite this setback, negotiations to secure binding global targets to cut plastic production are still supported by a group of 85 countries.
With more than 200 countries participating, hopes for an agreement were high, but nations including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia resisted calls for production reductions leading negotiators to concede defeat.
This echoed the unsatisfactory outcome just days before of COP29, the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, which resulted in mixed results and significant challenges.
Some progress was made at COP29, particularly in securing an increase in climate change financial commitments from developed to developing countries. However, the overall outcome did not provide sufficient progress to address the escalating climate crisis, which continues to bring increasingly extreme weather and detrimental environmental impacts worldwide.
Over many years – some would say at least since the fall of the Berlin wall and the ‘end’ of The Cold War – the influence of institutions such as the UN security council has been on the wane. UN resolutions are often vetoed or unenforceable and seen as ineffective.
Essentially, when it comes to meaningful widescale international cooperation, the lack of concrete progress at both COP29 and the INC-5 plastic conference, both of which are UN-led, merely continues this trend of failure. Increasingly, it seems that taking unilateral action or cooperating with select, like-minded international partner nations is the only reliable way to get things done.
Paving the way to reducing all waste
In light of the lack of progress that characterises INC-5 and COP29, many would say the UK is doing the right thing in forging ahead in pursuit of ambitious net zero carbon targets and initiatives like Simpler Recycling and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) to cover all waste and recyclables – not just plastic.
EPR obligates producers classified as ‘large organisations’ with an annual turnover of greater than £2 million and who are responsible for supplying or importing more than 50 tonnes of empty packaging or packaged goods.
Through a system of waste management fees and purchase of packaging recycling notes (PRNs) or packaging export recycling notes (PERNs), funds are generated to support collection of household packaging waste to meet EPR recycling obligations.
EPR also covers business waste and on-the-go street bin waste for dealing with fast food packaging. Making producers of packaging financially responsible for the entire lifecycle of their packaging from production to disposal, incentivises the use of packaging that is easier to recycle and uses less plastic.
Ultimately the revenue generated by EPR is intended to support the development of improved recycling practice and infrastructure, making it easier for consumers to recycle and for recyclers to process materials.
Simpler Recycling and EPR in tandem
Simpler Recycling is intended to work in synergy with EPR to boost recycling rates. By standardising collections to simplify recycling practice it reduces confusion for consumers, and supports improved recycling rates.
EPR revenues need to offset Simpler Recycling costs as fully as possible. This includes the changes for standardising collections with unified waste streams, new bins to accommodate the specific recycling types, clear recycling labelling, consistent communication and public awareness campaigns.
However, EPR revenues also need to support modification of recycling infrastructure. This includes investment to enable sorting facilities to handle greater complexity and increased volumes of recyclable materials, as well as new collection vehicle fleets, enlarged depots and charging infrastructure for electric vehicles (EVs). Many local authorities are forging partnerships with the private sector or neighbouring authorities to enable them to process certain materials.
Extended Producer Responsibility and Simpler Recycling data
As would be expected, data collection and reporting is pivotal to EPR. The volumes of materials collected and recycled, and processing costs are pivotal to setting the rates that obligated brand owners and importers will pay under the scheme to fund LA waste management operations.
Councils need to be exemplary in managing the data. As well as tracking financials such as cost centres and payments received from EPR scheme administrators, transparency and accountability needs to be interwoven into all data management.
There is little doubt that collection operations are going to need to be radically overhauled and re-organised to meet the central government’s requirements for the frequency of recyclable and non-recyclable stream collections.
Under updated Defra (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) guidelines, most households and businesses will be required to use four separate containers to separate waste into distinct streams by March next year. These include bins for residual (non-recyclable) waste, food waste mixed with garden waste, paper and cardboard, and other dry recyclables such as plastic, metal, and glass.
Smarter use of data for Simpler Recycling with Whitespace
Whitespace possesses exemplary expertise and experience of consulting, designing and implementing technology, working with local authorities and the waste management industry to provide highly efficient municipal services.
Preserving a council’s current investment in technology through utilising existing collection round data, Whitespace Municipal Waste Management Software simplifies collection round reorganisation for Simpler Recycling. This includes mapping to optimise route planning, reducing fuel consumption and costs, or to take into account range limits of EVs.
Whether it is back-end fleet management, in-cab systems to help crews deliver more efficient collection and cleansing, or better engagement and communications through the Whitespace Resident App, our solutions enable highly efficient, joined up and responsive waste collection services.
Whitespace partners with over 100 local authorities to help deliver efficient high quality environmental services. To find out more about Whitespace Municipal Waste Management solutions, please get in touch by calling us on +44 (0)1483 231 650 or emailing us at info@whitespacews.com