From this Monday, 175 countries are meeting in Paris to adopt an international treaty aimed at reducing plastic production. Currently, “the production of virgin plastics is increasing by 3% per year”, underlines this Monday, a specialist in environmental issues.
“The industry will try to talk about an alternative. But it’s exactly like when we talk about climate change”it’s necessary “totally change behavior”alerted Monday, May 29 on franceinfo the journalist Dorothée Moisan, specialist in environmental issues, author of Les Plastiqueurs, investigates these industrialists who poison uswhile representatives of 175 nations with diverging ambitions met at UNESCO headquarters in Paris for a second session of the international negotiating committee, out of the five scheduled, to reach a historic agreement covering the entire plastic life.
>> Plastic pollution: we explain the negotiations that open Monday in Paris
According to Dorothée Moisan, “Technologies will make it possible to have 80% plastic from a barrel of oil”. It also recalls that plastics manufacturers are “extremely present in the negotiations” behind the states.
franceinfo: Is the plastics industry making an effort?
Dorothee Moisan: She is making efforts to produce plastic. It’s a certainty. It is estimated that the production of virgin plastics is increasing by 3% per year. Plastic producers are mainly petrochemical and oil, gas and coal producers, which often have subsidiaries or produce plastics themselves. So today, to say that they are making an effort, we are a bit far from reality. And besides, they are extremely present in the negotiations. They are really behind the States, especially the United States. We have behind them people from the industry who are there.
The weight of the plastics industry is considerable. That’s $1 trillion a year.
It is indeed an enormous power. And what we say very little is that plastic is the lifeline of the petrochemical industry. With climate change, oil, natural gas, thermal cars will gradually be replaced by electric cars. They will be in more and more difficulty. To give an example, a barrel of oil today is about 10% plastic. There are refineries where we are at 40%. And we are developing technologies that will make it possible to have 80% plastic from a barrel of oil.
>> Plastic pollution: how to transform the 15 billion pots of yogurt bought and thrown away each year in France?
Is it a magnifying glass of all the issues that arise on climate and environmental issues in general?
It’s a magnifying glass because we are looking at the same problem as with the climate and the fact of changing energy. The industry will try to talk about an alternative, how to do something else. But it’s exactly like when we talk about climate change. It is not changing one thing for another. It’s really about changing behavior.
Could we live without plastic?
Totally, no. If only for wind turbines or photovoltaic panels, we will have plastic. I will take a very simple example: the shower gel. The industry will tell you, ‘now we make shower gels with recycled plastic bottles’. Plastic is toxic. Recycling a toxic product will not help. On the contrary, the toxicity is increased. Why don’t we say to ourselves, let’s have some soap? This simply means that, for most people, we have to relearn how to take soap, which is not a huge drama, but which will make it possible to do without plastic for an everyday product.