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Daily Current Affairs for UPSC

UNEP report on Plastic pollution

(Syllabus- GS Paper 3, Environment and Ecology)

Context– The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recently launched the report “Turning off the Tap: How the world can end plastic pollution and create a circular economy”.

Key highlights

  • The report proposes systems to address the cause of plastic pollution by combining reducing problematic and unnecessary plastic use and market transformation towards circulation of plastic. 
  •  The report aims on accelerating key shifts i.e reuse,recycle, reorient and diversify actions to deal with the legacy of plastic pollution.

 About the report:

  •   The  UNEP report outlines solutions to cut global plastic pollution. According to the report, plastic pollution could reduce by 80% by 2040 if countries and companies make deep policy shifts using technologies.
  •  The report is ahead of the second round of negotiations in Paris to beat global plastic pollution and outlines the magnitude and nature of changes required to end plastic pollution and create a circular economy.
  •  The report call for three market shifts i.e, reuse- that can reduce 30% of plastic pollution by 2040,recycle that can reduce plastic pollution by 20% by 2040, increase the share of economically recyclable plastics from 21 to 50% and reorient and diversify with careful replacement of plastic products and packaging  materials with alternative materials like paper or compostable materials that can  further reduce plastic pollution by 17%.
  •  The report calls for setting and implementing design and safety standards for disposing non-recyclable plastic waste, making the manufacturers responsible for shedding microplastics. 
  • Implementation of regulatory measures to ensure that plastics are designed to be circular like the Extended producer responsibility(EPR) scheme that makes the producer finance the collection, recycling and responsible end-of-life of plastic products.
  • Internationally agreed  policies, cross-border knowledge baseline and global framework with the joint effort of policy makers shall encourage reduce plastic pollution.
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