用循环经济方法应对海洋塑料垃圾的挑战（英文版）.pdf

1 INCLUSIVE AND SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT Addressing the challenge of Marine Plastic Litter using Circular Economy methods Relevant considerations Photo: Ben Mierement, NOAA NOS2 Disclaimer This document has been produced without formal United Nations editing. The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this document do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations Industrial Develop- ment Organization (UNIDO) concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries, or its economic system or degree of development. Designations such as “developed”, “industrialized” and “de- veloping” are intended for statistical convenience and do not necessarily express a judgment about the stage reached by a particular country or area in the development process. Mention of firm names or commercial products does not constitute an endorsement by UNIDO. Although great care has been taken to maintain the accuracy of information herein, neither UNIDO nor its Member States assume any responsibility for consequences which may arise from the use of the material. A working paper UNIDO United Nations Industrial Development Organisation Department for Environment Vienna, Austria April 2019 Pictures Cover: Ben Mierement / National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Page 6: MichaelisScientists / CC BY-SA 4.0 Page 15: Tony Webster / CC02 Page 20: _javardh_001 / CC0 Page 22: Krizjohhn Rosales Page 25: UNIDO Page 31: University of Exeter / CC02 Page 37: Nyancho Nwanri / King Baudouin African Development Prize Page 38: CC0 Page 40: Lanrupacoco / CC BY-SA 4.0 Page 43:UNIDO1 Executive summary Plastics are versatile materials, being inexpensive, light, easily shaped and durable and have brought immeasurable benefits to many areas of life. They are used in numerous industrial sectors, including packaging, health care, construction, automotive, aviation, agriculture, logistics and storage, consumer goods, clothing and many more. Primarily made from fossil-fu- els, plastic materials are valuable and embody our worlds limited natural material resources (in addition to oil, a lot of energy, mostly of the non-renewable kind, and water) and come with sunk investment costs that may be reused to create fresh economic value. Plastics production and waste generation In 2015, global production of primary, or virgin, plastics was 407 million metric tons (Mt) and expected to double by 2030 and to double again by 2050, excluding bio-based plastics produc- tion that was approximately 1% of total annual production of fossil fuel-based plastics. In 2015, 302 Mt of plastic waste was generated, amounting to 74% of the total primary plastics production in the same year, including secondary (recycled) plastics. In the same year, plastic waste generated as a proportion of plastics produced for use in sectors such as plastic packaging, plastic consumer and institutional goods, and synthetic textiles were 97%, 88%, and 71%, respectively. As of 2015, approximately 6,300 Mt stock of plastic waste had been generated, around 9% of which had been recycled, 12% was incinerated, and 79% was accumulated in landfills or the natural environment; a huge loss in economic terms and alarming with respect to potential harm that this could mean to humans, animals and plants and our ecosystems. State of marine plastic litter in oceans The global community, particularly G20 members have mobilized to put a stop to the global ma- rine plastic litter challenge. This challenge comprises of an estimated stock of 83 Mt of plastic waste that has already accumulated in oceans and an estimated 8 Mt of additional, misman- aged plastic waste entering oceans annually, at least 80% of which originates directly from land-based sources. In 2017 , the G20 Leaders Summit in Hamburg agreed on a G20 Action Plan on Marine Litter and discussions continued at the G20 2018 in Argentina. The Japan Presidency for G20 2019 has prioritized the global marine litter challenge and aims for an implementation framework for concerted action. There is hardly any global, regional, national report and research study on marine plastic litter that does not point out the role of plastic packaging, single-use or short-lived and fast-moving consumer products, personal care products containing microbeads, synthetic clothing and microfibers, and fishing gear lost at sea. Circular economy practices for addressing the marine plastic litter challenge The problem of marine plastic litter can be addressed inter alia through implementing circular economy practices. This, in conjunction with optimizing landfill management, will help to sub- stantially reduce the amount of those plastics most likely to end up as marine plastic litter. To- gether with measures to tighten the management of marine based sources of marine litter, and with clean-up operations where feasible, increased plastic pollution of oceans may be stemmed and eventually prevented. In the product design stage, the following might be considered: a) scrutinizing the necessity of packaging altogether, including of plastics, b) selection of renewable, bio-degradable and compostable materials and additives that are not or less toxic for essential plastic packaging or single-use plastic products; c) designing for less material use to decrease waste; d) designing packaging and products that use a single or small number of polymers that are easy to separate during recycling. 2 Policy measures to incentivize circular economy practices in design could consist of supporting implementation of innovations in design of existing and new products, and support to inno- vations and start-ups in particular related to new, biodegradable and compostable plastics. A number of initiatives could trigger both supply side motivation for circular product designs and preference for such products on the demand side, such as; measures for creating markets for recycled plastics and improving markets for bio-based plastics; differentiated taxes on virgin and recycled plastics; introduction of standards for recycled content; improving information on recycled content in products in combination with educational campaigns for consumers. Fur- thermore, support for development of effective infrastructure for collection and separation of waste streams and empowering local authorities with sufficient financial and technical resourc- es could induce product designs for ease of recyclability. In the production stage, strengthening management of plastic raw materials to eliminate mate- rial losses into wastewater streams, and improving resource productivity of manufacturing by implementing resource efficient cleaner production methods could prevent leakages of plastic raw materials and industrial plastic waste into the environment. In the service sectors, tourism and retail businesses and industrial laundries may be encouraged to implement circular econo- my practices to: replace single use packaging with durable and reusable packaging; substitute materials for packaging with renewable ones; implement new business models that eliminate the need for packaging and single-use plastic products; and reduce and eliminate shedding of microfibers and microbeads into waste and waste water management systems. Policy respons- es supporting the above measures could go a long way by extending their adoption by enter- prises from micro to large; these could include the development of information and knowledge platforms on good practices and emerging regulatory requirements and support programmes for their implementation. In the use stage, suppliers as well as customers should be led towards choices supporting circular economy practices, in particular opting out of single-use plastic products, and support- ing waste management systems that can collect, sort, separate and effectively recycle plastics. This can be achieved through means such as the enforcement of bans for some and levies for other plastic products, enforcement and fees in cases of non-compliance, and deposit return schemes for reducing single-use or short-lived plastic product use. Furthermore, consumers could be encouraged to shift to business models based on prod- uct-as-service or sharing to extend lifetime of plastic products consumed; and to reject products containing microbeads or that shed microfibers; also, retrofits to e.g. household washer/driers could filter out microbeads/microfibers. Bulk consumers could deploy their purchasing power along circular use patterns. Policies facilitating the proposed changes should be complemented by consumer education that starts at early ages for a future without plastic litter. At the end of the first life, products should have various directions to follow before becoming waste: reuse with or without repairs or refurbishment, recycling for secondary materials either for the same type of use; up-cycled to higher value uses or down-cycled to an alternative use. In a circular economy, options are or should be the same for plastic packaging and short-lived, fast moving plastic product. Consequently, plastic waste of short-lived products, including packaging should find their way into effective waste management and recycling systems. It should be an aim to make recycling of plastics competitive to the tipping fees for landfilling; these fees are frequently considered to currently not reflect all externalities. It also appears meaningful to provide support for innova- tion towards technology improvements in mechanical and, in particular, chemical recycling to help production of recyclates of high quality for new products. 3 Extending and further developing producer responsibility schemes supports both greener prod- uct designs for recyclability, as well as collection and consolidation of waste streams for recy- cling operations. Easily understandable labelling schemes can help consumers to participate effectively in waste management. Regulating use of certain, in particular the hazardous materi- als in products have also brought about many effective outcomes. Support for international cooperation within the G20 and, beyond, with relevant developing countries will allow to share best practices on successes recorded by G20 members. This might include but should not be limited to: transfer of recycling technologies and knowledge sharing; technical assistance for integration of informal sector waste operators into waste management systems; and capacity building in developing countries on circular economy practices. Finally, seeking and supporting innovations for measures to clean-up plastics from shores and water columns and open oceans would need to continue, in particular where economically feasible (ocean surface, coasts, ports, ). With todays technologies, it is almost impossible not to have a waste fraction that requires final disposal, including for short-lived, fast moving plastic products and packaging. Options would be safe landfilling or elimination, particularly of hazardous material containing plastic fractions under controlled incineration conditions. An additional option might be to encapsu- late residual plastics in other materials, such as in paving mixes in road construction, as long as it could be ascertained that leakage of plastic particulate matter and some of the hazardous additives they contain into the environment is assured. In summary, designing out waste to retain plastics within the economy; regaining the value embodied in plastics that leaked out of the economy as waste; and continuing efforts for recov- ering plastics already in oceans, in particular in services, on beaches, ports and coastal waters emerge as strategies worthwhile to consider on the way to a circular plastics economy and an end to the global marine plastic litter challenge. In this working paper This Executive Summary (Chapter 1) precedes a short background on the interest of G20 in the marine plastic litter given in the Introduction (Chapter 2), which is followed by a discussion on the application of Circular Economy practices to the short-lived, fast moving plastic prod- ucts and packaging (Chapter 3). In Chapter 4, the state of plastics today is reviewed. Chapter 5 scopes the scale of the marine plastic litter challenge and briefly describes how plastics move from the economy to the environment. Chapter 6, the by far largest chapter, discusses how circular economy practices could be applied through the product design, production, use, end- of-first-life and disposal stages to short-lived and fast-moving plastic products and packaging and offers some policy responses based on experiences of G20 members. Chapter 7 contains a summary of strategies proposed and some final thoughts on how loops could be closed in a circular plastics economy.4 Table of contents 2 Introduction 6 3 Circular Economy 8 4 Plastics today 104.1 Plastics production and waste generation 104.2 Most commonly used polymers and additives in plastics 124.3 Some considerations on plastics applications 14 5 Marine plastic litter 165.1 Scale of the problem 165.2 How do plastics move from the economy to the environment? 18 6 Circular economy practices for addressing the marine plastic litter challenge 216.1 Circular economy practices in product design 21Rationale 21Practices to address challenges of plastic litter by product design 22G20 members experience 23Policy responses 246.2 Circular economy practices in manufacturing and service delivery 26Rationale 26G20 members experience 28Policy responses 286.3 Circular economy practices for product and service use 29Rationale 29Practices to address challenges of plastic litter in product and service use 29G20 members experience 30Policy responses 316.4 Circular economy practices at end-of-first-life 32Rationale 32Practices to address challenges of plastic litter at end-of-first-life 33G20 members experience 34Policy responses 386.5 Circular economy practices in final disposal 39Rationale 39Practices to address challenges of plastic litter at final disposal 39G20 members experience 39Policy responses 40 7 Concluding Remarks 42 Annex A. RECP practices 46 Annex B. Regulations on plastic bags of G20 Members 47 Annex C: Global and regional conventions to control marine plastic pollution 495 List of Figures Figure 1. Cycle of a Circular Economy 9 Figure 2. Primary plastics production and waste generated by use sector in million metric tons in 2015 10 Figure 3. Cumulative plastic waste generation and disposal (in million metric tons, Mt) 11 Figure 4. Global primary plastic production (in million metric tons) by polymer type, 2015 12 Figure 5. Commonly used additives in plastics, by function 13 Figure 6. How mu