G-20 urges action on ocean litter of plastics

KARIUZAWA, Japan — Environment ministers from the Group of 20 on Sunday recognized an urgent need to tackle the marine plastic litter that is choking the world’s oceans, but failed Sunday to agree on concrete measures or targets to phase out single-use plastics.

More than 8 million tons of plastic are dumped into the world’s oceans every year, equivalent to a garbage truck’s worth every minute. Scientists predict that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the oceans by weight than fish.

But agreeing on a common approach to the problem has proved problematic, with the United States blocking demands to set a global target to significantly reduce or phase out single-use plastics.

“Marine litter and especially marine plastic litter and microplastics, is a matter requiring urgent attention given its adverse impacts on marine ecosystems, livelihoods and industries including fisheries, tourism and shipping, and potentially on human health,” environment ministers from the G-20 said on Sunday.

The ministers said they were “determined to drive measures to resolve this issue,” while also noting that “plastics play an important role in our economies and daily lives.”

But they failed to agree on any firm, shared commitments, talking only of “encouraging voluntary actions” by G-20 members “in accordance with national policies.”

The issue of marine plastic pollution has become an increasing hot diplomatic topic over the past year, and there have been calls for collective action at G-20, Group of Seven and United Nations forums.

The European Union aims to phase out single-use plastics by 2030 and make all packaging reusable or recyclable.

Countries at a U.N. Environment Assembly in Nairobi in March pledged to significantly reduce the manufacture and use of single-use plastics by 2030 — apart from the United States, which signaled its rejection of the declaration on the final day.

President Donald Trump’s administration blames the problem on Asian countries where huge amounts of plastic are being washed along rivers and into the sea.

“Sixty percent of the marine plastic waste comes from six Asian countries, and 80 percent of the waste comes from four rivers internationally,” Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler told reporters in Kariuzawa. “We know where those problems are, and we can do a lot to address that.”

But environmentalists say the Trump administration’s argument ignores the fact that the United States has long been the world’s biggest exporter of plastic waste. It also glosses over the role of U.S. corporations in selling plastics and products packed in nonrecyclable plastic to developing countries, often in small single-use sachets.

“The United States is very, very beholden to industry interests,” said Christopher Chin, executive director of the San Francisco-based Center for Oceanic Awareness, Research and Education.

The center and many other environmental groups, including Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, are calling for a legally binding treaty to curb marine plastic pollution. They argue that an essential element of such a treaty has to be a shared global commitment to significantly reduce or phase out single-use plastic.

On Sunday, the G-20 issued an “implementation framework for actions on marine plastic litter,” vowing to “promote a life-cycle approach” to urgently reduce plastic littler discharge into the oceans, through waste management, cleanups, innovative solutions and international cooperation.