To curb the tsunami of plastic pollution flooding the planet, more than 180 countries met in Geneva over the last 10 days to try to finalise a global plastics treaty.
But by Friday it was clear they had failed. Controversy that erupted on Wednesday after the release of an eviscerated text — from which key issues such as capping plastic production and regulating harmful chemicals had been deleted — signalled that the talks could stall despite their urgency.
We are all exposed to microplastics and invisible nanoplastics in the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat — ingesting the equivalent of a plastic credit card every week, researchers at Newcastle University in Australia say. Plastic waste is contaminating our blood, brains and organs just as it is clogging rivers, oceans and the land.
Microplastics have been found, for example, in the tap water and wastewater of Gauteng, the air and river systems of Limpopo, the waters and fish of the Vaal River, in the Zandvlei estuary in Cape Town and in the city’s harbour.
More than a quarter of the 16,000 or so chemicals used in producing plastics are toxic, persist in the environment and are “highly hazardous to health and the environment”, according to a paper this month in The Lancet. They heighten the risks of cancer, infertility and disease, it says, calling plastics “a grave, growing, and under-recognised danger” to human health.
The Council for Scientific & Industrial Research estimates that plastics pollution in South Africa could nearly double from 2020 levels by 2040.
Like the landmark Paris Agreement on climate change, a plastics treaty is intended to protect the health of people and the planet from further harm.
About 100 “high ambition” countries want legally binding treaties with measurable targets to hold countries accountable for their contributions to global problems such as plastic pollution.
Opposing them are the “like-minded” oil- and gas-producing states. They tend to be obstructive, stalling and blocking attempts to shape treaties a that could reduce their profits. South Africa usually negotiates as part of the African bloc, which does not neatly fall into either camp.
In Geneva, South Africa took a strong position to secure a new dedicated plastics fund to give developing countries the finance to curb pollution and meet targets, said Thobile Zulu-Molobi, media officer for the department of forestry, fisheries & the environment.
She said South Africa supported the “transparent sharing of information about chemicals used in plastic production, especially given the widespread use of plastics in food contact applications”.
“All decisions must be grounded in the best available science.”
The legislation is good but there has been zero enforcement and a lot of businesses are just ignoring it. CEOs can be held responsible in 2026. Are they going to get fines? Are they going to go to jail a year from now?
— Johann Conradie, vice-chairperson of the South African Plastics Recycling Organisation
As the biggest producer of plastics in Africa, South Africa opposed a global cap on production in the treaty, favouring instead “nationally determined actions” and economic tools such as its plastic bag levy and extended producer responsibility regulations, Zulu-Molobi said.
The project manager for the circular plastics economy programme at WWF South Africa, Lorren de Kock, said focusing solely on waste management was not enough to stop pollution given the unsustainable amount of plastic being produced. South Africans generate an annual average of 41kg of plastic waste each, compared with the global average of 29kg, a WWF report found.
Before leaving for Geneva last weekend, Dion George, minister of forestry, fisheries & the environment, announced plans for a ban on microplastics, similar to the bans in the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Italy, South Korea, New Zealand, Sweden, UK and the US.
Telly Chauke, CEO of the Petco Producer Responsibility Organisation, which represents producers of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) products and packaging, said the group supported a ban on non-recyclable and hard-to-recycle materials. It also backed a “design-for-recycling” mandate that was on the agenda in Geneva.
South African observers in Geneva included Sasol, while the African Reclaimers Organisation (ARO), a waste pickers group, was represented by the International Alliance of Waste Pickers. This group raised concerns about the vague language around the role of waste pickers and a “just transition” for them if bans go ahead.
Luyanda Hlatshwayo, spokesperson for ARO, said: “Ignorance and lack of recognition... are the biggest hurdles we face.” ARO members had to deal with stigma, harassment, dangerous working conditions, exploitation and “poor law enforcement, which results in nonpayment of service fees”.
Startlingly, the rate of inclusion of recycled content in plastic products in South Africa has slowed since the pandemic instead of expanding, as had been expected given the introduction of extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulations in 2021.
These require producers to raise the percentage of recycled content in their goods, as well as to up their collection and recycling rates, by next year.
“The legislation is good but there has been zero enforcement and a lot of businesses are just ignoring it,” said Johann Conradie, vice-chair of South African Plastics Recycling Organisation (Sapro). “CEOs can be held responsible in 2026. Are they going to get fines? Are they going to go to jail a year from now?”
The recyclate content in plastic packaging and products in South Africa overall is less than 10%, far below the 2026 targets. Some of these targets include: 35% for PET punnets, including sandwich containers, fruit punnets and ready-meal trays; 50% for PET flexibles such as shopping bags; and 66% for PET film, including chip packets, coffee bean bags and precut- vegetable bags.
Patricia Pillay, CEO of producer group Polyco, a nonprofit company that encourages the collection and recycling of plastic packaging, said Polyco members were making strides in the effort, particularly with polyolefins (used for packaging, piping and household goods) and multilayered materials.
Petco members exceeded their targets for the collection of beverage, personal care and oil bottles, said Chauke. She said they met collection and recycling targets for 99% of tonnage, and the recycling of liquid board packaging (Tetra Pak) had taken off — 26% of it was recycled last year, compared with the target of 20%.
Conradie, who runs Myplas, a recycling company in Cape Town, said recycling grew 6%-7% last year but this “does not make a dent in removing waste from the environment”.
“We want 30% of all products on the markets to have recyclate content,” he said.
“You will not find one white milk bottle on a dump site in South Africa because up to 85% of them are being recycled and waste pickers know their value. Recycling is not just about being ‘green’. The circular plastics economy is an economic driver that creates lots of jobs.”
De Kock of the WWF said industry and the government had “the greatest leverage to shift the system [in South Africa], and even more so a global treaty”.
She said consumers have few to no alternatives to plastics, given that retailers across the spectrum default to plastic. The lower cost of virgin plastic trumps sustainability for many brands.
The government’s focus on protecting jobs has shielded producers of plastic.
But she said economic modelling “has provided evidence that a shift to a circular plastics economy will improve livelihoods for the most vulnerable in the value chain and create more jobs overall”.
Now that the Geneva talks have collapsed, is South Africa willing to pick up the torch anyway?
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