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How to decrease Plastic Pollution by 2060 – OECD new report reveals 

By Nneka Nwogwugwu 

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published its second Global Plastics Outlook, which details policy scenarios and projections on how to decrease plastic pollution by 2060.

The Outlook aims to help policymakers understand the challenge of transitioning to more sustainable and circular plastics use and the need for additional policy action.

The report which was published on OECD site on Thursday, identified and compares two scenarios – a regional action policy scenario and a global ambition policy scenario. 

In so doing, the report seeks to enhance understanding of policies needed for, and economic implications of, drastically reducing the environmental impacts of plastics, as well as the environmental benefits and economic consequences of adopting such policies. 

According to the report, under business-as-usual, by 2060:

• Plastics use could almost triple globally, driven by economic and population growth, with the largest increases expected in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia;

• Plastic waste is projected to almost triple, with half of plastic waste still ending up in landfills and less than 20% recycled;

• Plastic leakage to the environment could double to 44 million tonnes a year, while plastic build-up in aquatic environments will triple.

The ‘Regional Action’ policy scenario is based on policies to improve the circularity of plastics use and reduce the negative environmental impacts of plastics. It ensures continued economic growth while reducing plastic leakage, includes fiscal and regulatory policies targeting all phases of the plastics lifecycle, and is more ambitious for OECD countries than for non-OECD countries. 

The report finds that by 2060, the ‘Regional Action’ scenario could decrease plastic waste by almost 20% and plastic leakage by more than 50% through taxes on plastics use and packaging. 

Such taxes would restrict demand for and production of plastics, and global recycling would increase to 40%. Policies that increase demand for plastic scrap and boost the supply of recycled plastics would lead to an increased market share of secondary plastics from 12% to 29%.

 Mismanaged waste would decrease by more than 60%, falling below 2019 levels, due to better waste management systems in non-OECD countries. However, plastics use and waste would still more than double from 2019 levels. 

The ‘Global Ambition’ package could reduce plastics use and waste by more than 30% and almost eliminate plastic leakage by 2060. Waste and use reductions would mainly be realized through a plastics tax that increases to USD 750/tonne globally by 2030 and to USD 1,500/tonne by 2060, and a 33% higher tax on packaging. 

Recycling would increase to almost 60%, while the market share of secondary plastics would increase to 41% by 2060. Mismanaged waste would decrease to almost zero, leakage to the environment would decrease by 85%, and macroplastic leakage would almost completely disappear, including to aquatic environments.

 However, microplastic leakage would only decrease by 9%. This scenario is also projected to reduce GHG emissions.

Hundreds of penguin deaths in New Zealand linked to climate change

Beset by predator attacks and human development, the world’s smallest penguin faces its largest threat yet: climate change

Walking the 3,000-kilometre Te Araroa trail should have been the adventure of a lifetime. However, hikers on the Ninety Mile Beach were dismayed to find more than 200 dead birds on the shore. The little blue penguin (Eudyptula minor), also known by the indigenous Maori people as a kororā, was among the greatest casualties. 

The hikers’ experience was not an isolated one. On May 2, 20 little blue penguins were found dead on Tokerau Beach. Ten days laters, more than a hundred kororā were found dead by the residents of Cable Bay.

Mass kororā deaths used to occur once every decade due to naturally occuring temperature fluctuations, but scientists fear they are now happening more frequently. As a result, little blue penguin populations have been declining, and they have been labelled “at risk” by the Department of Conservation (DoC). 

Investigations by the DoC on seven of the dead Tokerau Beach kororā reveal that the penguins had either starved or frozen to death.

“According to the necropsy performed by the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI), the birds showed signs of starvation and hypothermia. There was no blubber to keep them warm in the water, and their gastrointestinal tracts were empty. The deaths [of the 90 Mile Beach kororā] are also related to this starvation event,” announced Meirene Hardy-Birch, operations manager of DoC Kaitaia.

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