The international community is on the brink of signing the world’s first legally binding agreement addressing the complete life cycle of plastics. Supporters hope the reforms will fundamentally alter how we use and dispose of this hugely important material, and expectations are high ahead of the final round of negotiations in South Korea next week. However, according to Michael Laurier, CEO of Symphony Environmental, global players need to adopt a far more constructive approach than simply calling for bans.

“The Global Plastics Treaty, if seen through a scientific and non-partisan lens, can offer the world new hope when it comes to plastic waste,” comments Laurier. “However, I remain concerned that NGOs who have spent decades campaigning for illogical, unscientific blanket bans based on emotion will sway delegates to put damaging provisions into the Treaty. We need to be realistic about plastic, which is an immensely useful material.”

“One of the mantras over past decades has been ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’, but we still have plastic persisting in the open environment, so that policy needs an urgent rethink.  You can improve design and waste management, but you cannot recycle, or include in a circular economy, plastic which has escaped into the open environment.  The plastic needs to be made so that it will self-destruct if it escapes as litter, and we should be adding ‘Remove’ to the existing slogan. There is no policy provision for this except in the Middle East, where they have made oxo-biodegradability compulsory.”  

Symphony’s D2W is a masterbatch which, when added to ordinary plastic at manufacture, converts it into biodegradable materials. Plastic made with D2W can still be reused and recycled, but it will biodegrade and disappear entirely in a much shorter time span, leaving no microplastics and harmful residues behind.  It is not a “problematic” plastic – it is the only way to prevent plastic in the environment from accumulating there for decades.

The American National Standards Institute states: “Using oxo-biodegradable technology can prevent future contributions to the accumulation of plastic waste that has escaped into the environment. Oxo-biodegradable plastic serves as a solution to littered plastic because it is recyclable and will degrade without releasing methane.”

Laurier concludes: “It is crucial as we move towards a more sustainable solution for plastic waste, to choose science and practical solutions over alarmist appeals based on emotion and hidden commercial interests. We need top-down efforts to ensure solutions are communicated to the plastics industry and the general populace in a way that not just reduces plastic waste but takes the necessary steps to remove it from the environment altogether.” 

Notes to Editors:

About Symphony Environmental Technologies plc

Symphony has a diverse and growing customer base and has established itself as an international business with over 70 distributors around the world. Products made with Symphony's plastic technologies are now available in nearly 100 countries and in many different product applications. Symphony itself is accredited to ISO9001 and ISO14001.

Symphony is a founder-member of The BPA (www.biodeg.org) and actively participates in the Committee work of the British Standards Institute (BSI), the American Standards Organisation (ASTM), the European Standards Organisation (CEN), and the International Standards Organisation (ISO).

Further information on the Group can be found at www.symphonyenvironmental.com and X @SymphonyEnv.

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