The negotiations that have taken place in Busan, South Korea, between 25 November and 1 December have been quite unnoticed. As we explained in Article 2.849 of ARGIA last year, the solution to plastic pollution is to reduce use, two years ago 170 states of the world began a summit cycle to seek a solution to plastic pollution. On the occasion of the last meeting, Juan Carlos Monterrey Gómez, head of the Panama delegation, said: “Plastic is a weapon of mass destruction; here we are not negotiating any convention, it is the most important convention for the survival of mankind since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.”

However, some states have been hampering the negotiations and, instead of reaching a global agreement, failure has been imposed at the last summit of the cycle. Without surprises, it has been the big sellers of oil, and therefore plastic, who have been obstructing the agreement, especially Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia. A European diplomat has described the AFP agency as an obstacle, in recent days there have been some 60 five-minute talks each, on the pretext of changing a sentence to the draft convention. In a very diplomatic statement, the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Committee on Plastic Pollution, Ecuadorian Luis van Valdivieso, stressed that "there are critical issues that still impede a global agreement" and that "more time is needed to solve them effectively". Monterrey Gómez, for its part, has denounced "worldwide treason" in a "more direct" way. These negotiations are more complicated than a lost polyethylene fishing net at sea.

Trash from rich, poison from poor

This pollution is not evident in all, and many trends can distort our perception. Yesterday's plastic bulbs (bottles, bags, toys...) have not disappeared, but have been crushed and spread all over the planet. They have become the current microplastics and their number will continue to rise as we continue to manufacture the new plastic. In addition, especially at sea, the amounts of macros and microplastics can vary greatly depending on the location: The Mediterranean, for example, has only 1% of the world’s sea water, but only 7% of the world’s microplastics. On the surface of the Gulf of Bizkaia there are several areas of collection where there are 10,000 times more waste than in the area. And, above all, with large waste producers in the global north exporting plastic pollution to poorer countries, that is where the part of the problem we have removed is piling up. For a long time, they were imported from several countries in South-East Asia, but China and others decided to reduce them, redirecting much of them to Indonesia.

In theory, Indonesia only imports recyclables, but there are also a lot of illegal waste coming in. In addition, because paper trash can become 2% plastic, several countries in the global north intentionally introduce plastic trash of 2% among the recyclable papers it sends to Indonesia. That 2% is about 60,000 tons a year, which accumulates to the 260,000 tons of plastic sent each year "officially recyclable". The reason for shipping is that plastic recycling is usually more expensive than the production of the new one. This 2% "folded" plastic that goes to Indonesia is classified by the population itself, pulling what is not recyclable or using it as fuel in houses or factories, because it is cheaper than the madera.Una
tofu factory in the city of Tropode, for example, uses this plastic as fuel to produce tofu. In the process, the dust falls to the ground and is eaten with the chickens around it. As explained in the Plastic Waste Poisons report Indonesia’s food chain, the level of dioxin in rice is 70 times that allowed in Europe, and in addition to dioxin, PCBs, PBDE, SCCP and PFOS are measured at a high level. Without surprises, the population that ingests the most microplastics in the world is Indonesia: 15 grams a month, 100 times more than in the United States.

Non-manageable levels

If the current trend is maintained, the use of plastic and therefore the amount of plastic garbage will be tripled by 2060. But within a decade, the world will not be able to manage plastic garbage levels, as stated by Norwegian Development Minister Anne Beathe Tvinnereim at the Busan Summit.

Every year, more areas are discovered where microplastics are dispersed. We knew that in human squares, in blood veins, in the brain or in sperm there are micro or nanoplastics that harm our health -- heart attacks, spills, neurological problems, among others. We also knew that they disperse through the atmosphere, but a new study from the University of Pennsylvania has taught us that they can facilitate cloud formation. Dust particles usually form clouds, condensing steam into water droplets or ice crystals; microplastics have similar characteristics, but condensation occurs at temperatures between 5 and 10 degrees higher than powders. On the other hand, the clouds of microplastics carry more ice, which gives the clouds different characteristics in terms of the reflection of the solar rays and the capture of radiations terrestres.Los authors of the research,
Miriam Freedman and Heidi Buss, say that the climate consequences of this fact are not yet known. However, the effects of climate change were too many, even if a certain uncontrollable geoengineering was not added.