Talking trash: plastic waste treaty talks spur hope for Asia's circular economy

British design and technology teacher Tim Parker gleefully waded into the sea off Lamma Island on his first weekend in Hong Kong only to be shocked to find he was surrounded by plastic bags.

"My friend said, welcome to Hong Kong! Our waters are really polluted," said Parker, vividly recalling the 2014 incident.

It left such a deep imprint that he would go on to create Circular City, a technology platform enabling cafes to lend steel coffee cups to customers who borrow them for free, and earn reward points when they are returned.

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"When I was growing up I went to the beach and played with crabs and shells. When my two-year-old son grows up in Hong Kong, it really frustrates me that he plays with bits of plastic among the shells," said Parker.

Since his firm's launch in 2020 - with the help of HK$1 million (US$127,500) in grants from the Hong Kong government - 10,000 of his steel cups have been used, meaning that number disposable cups were not added to the city's landfill. Around a million are added daily.

His firm has started generating revenue and with world leaders discussing a treaty on plastic waste, Parker is optimistic about scaling up.

This month negotiators in France, from around 170 nations, agreed to begin crafting a draft treaty with the ultimate aim of curbing plastic pollution. It was a crucial first step towards cleaning up some of the most enduring human waste, which is even found in the most remote parts of the world, from Mount Everest in the Himalayas to the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench.

Environmental advocates have cautiously welcomed the progress made in Paris, despite concerns from the petroleum industry and some governments, hopeful that industries will now clean up their supply chains to ensure sustainability.

Plastic waste is projected to almost triple by 2060, with around half ending up in landfills and less than one-fifth recycled, according to a 2022 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, humanity produces more than 430 million tonnes of plastic annually, with Asia accounting for more than half of that.

A coalition of governments, led by Norway and Rwanda, along with environmental groups want to end plastic pollution completely by 2040, through slashing production and limiting the use of some chemicals.

It is too early to predict the outcome as the move will choke off a stream of revenue for fossil fuel firms, analysts say, as most plastics are made from chemicals that come from coal, gas or petrol.

But regardless of the shape of the pending draft treaty, they said that those businesses taking an early lead in reducing plastic waste is likely to be at a significant advantage.

It's projected that plastic production and usage will quadruple by the early 2050s. In Asia, Hong Kong and South Korea are among the highest per capita producers of plastic waste. In 2019, Asia accounted for around 51 per cent of all global plastics production, making it the largest plastics producing region in the world. China alone accounted for 32 per cent of global plastic materials production in 2021, making it by far the largest plastics producer in the world.

The waste problem worsened during the pandemic due to so many purchases of single-use plastic like face masks and e-commerce packaging from items bought online, compounded by disruptions in recycling and waste management, industry executives say.

"During the pandemic e-commerce really took off and it has remained at a high level," said Joshua Tsui, CEO of Floship, a Hong Kong -based logistics and circular supply chain solutions firm, adding that the volume of waste has not come down even though businesses have resumed normal operations.

The global talks for a plastic waste treaty is encouraging, he said, but he expects such an agreement to initially focus on broad agendas like reducing emissions. Immediate solutions to waste collection lie in the strengthening of the domestic regulatory framework and existing policies, Tsui said.

Collection from different households and the segregation of different packaging can be a far tougher proposition than delivering the product from a factory, he added.

Environmentalists say that a solution to plastic waste should start with a goal to reduce production at the top of the chain, followed by the creation of longer-lasting items that can be disassembled and recycled as the last step.

According to global conservation body WWF, plastic straws can take up to 200 years to decompose, and when they disintegrate they release tiny but harmful particles called microplastics.

While the full impact of ingesting these is not yet known, there is already research that suggests they may be harmful to health, with studies showing that chemicals used in plastic production can disrupt hormones regulating growth and development.

Some chemicals have been linked to heart disease, cancer and poor fetal development, and microplastics have become so pervasive that they are found in placentas and breast milk.

British chemist Alexander Parkes patented what is considered the first manufactured plastic back in 1862, but widespread use of plastic items only really caught on in more recent decades with products ranging from plastic shopping bags and lunchboxes to artificial hip joints and spacesuits.

Growing awareness, though, has now translated to a number of countries from India to Rwanda banning single-use plastics.

Elimination of plastic waste is at a critical juncture, said Leanne Tam, a Hong Kong based-campaigner for Greenpeace, adding that large industries should not put so much emphasis on recycling.

"We have to phase it [plastic] out," she said.

Most plastic is used in ways that can be eliminated, such as packaging fruit, but cannot be replaced in products like medical equipment, said Dharmesh Shah, an independent public policy analyst based in India, who focuses on plastic wastes.

While a global treaty - and action - on plastic waste are urgently needed, a draft agreement is unlikely before the end of 2024, say environmentalists. What will be the broad outline, let alone the details, are far from clear with many pushing for country-by-country rules, but the start of a global process itself is a good sign, they said.

Some businesses in Asia, not just Tim Parker's, have already begun to tackle the waste problem while waiting for politicians to intervene.

Two years ago, the village of Sarufutsu on Japan's island of Hokkaido was confronted with a pollution menace when a large catch of scallops turned into a haul of discarded shells after export agreements were broken during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Advertising firm TBWA\Hakuhodo, in partnership with the Osaka-based Koushi Chemical Industry, stepped in, using the discarded shells and recyclable plastic to create eco-friendly helmets that are used by fishermen and rescue crews during disaster relief efforts.

Meanwhile, after being confronted with piles of takeaway packaging on the idyllic beaches of Indonesia's Bali, Brian Francis Reilly launched Muuse - short for Multiple Use - an online rental platform for reusable packaging.

Sadly Reilly, an American, died in 2021, aged 41, but the enterprise has continued to move forward, with two of Reilly's co-founding partners, Jonathan Tostevin and Brittany Gomez, operating in Singapore and Hong Kong, as well as Toronto, and working with brands like Starbucks.

Tostevin, the CEO of Muuse, said customers are often really interested in alternative options and he hoped a global treaty on plastic waste will force governments and businesses to look for more solutions.

"We hope that it will bring greater innovation in single-use material and also encourage more companies to look at reusable packaging," Tostevin added.

Additional reporting by Reuters

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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