Latest / How To Protect The Ocean / Plastic pollution in the ocean: How the Global Treaty Could Change Everything

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Plastic pollution in the ocean: How the Global Treaty Could Change Everything · How To Protect The Ocean

• 0:00
  Plastic pollution is a problem for all of us, not just the environment.
• 0:04
  Studies have shown that plastic pollution has affected human health
• 0:08
  in the cardiovascular system, in our tissues and other places that
• 0:12
  will cause us to eventually die or have harmful effects due to plastic
• 0:17
  pollution bringing down in our system.
• 0:19
  Plastic pollution is a fossil fuel product.
• 0:22
  It is creating using petroleum.
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  It's a petroleum product and things need to change.
• 0:27
  Certain countries like Canada are banning specific single use plastics, but it's
• 0:31
  being attacked in court and there's an appeal decision waiting as we speak.
• 0:36
  Internationally, there is a plastic treaty.
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  It was hoped to be finished in 2024, and it's been worked on for
• 0:41
  the last two to three years, but it still hasn't been completed.
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  Now, there are meetings as we speak in Geneva to be able to come to an agreement
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  to put a plastic treaty in place.
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  Will it be completed by the end of this meeting?
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  I doubt it.
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  I hope so, but I highly doubt it.
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  But we're gonna talk about why it's being held up, what you can do
• 1:01
  about it, and all the information related to it on this episode of the
• 1:04
  How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
• 1:06
  Let's start the show.
• 1:09
  Hey everybody.
• 1:09
  Welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
• 1:12
  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is the podcast where you find out what's
• 1:14
  happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, what you can do to
• 1:17
  live for a better ocean by taking action.
• 1:20
  And just to let you know, I love how you're listening to this podcast.
• 1:23
  I love how if you've been here for a while and you continue
• 1:25
  to listen, thank you so much.
• 1:27
  And if you're just new here, welcome.
• 1:28
  This is where I break down a lot of things that are happening around the world with
• 1:32
  plastic pollution, other ocean issues, and just share some good news, some bad news,
• 1:36
  and some just regular news of new species like I did last episode or a couple of
• 1:40
  episodes ago where there was a new species
• 1:42
  of manta rays that were just discovered and named.
• 1:44
  so fun stuff like that.
• 1:45
  sometimes not so fun stuff like in this case, but I break down what's
• 1:48
  being done about it and how it's going to affect you in the future.
• 1:51
  So if you wanna know more and you want to be more involved in ocean
• 1:54
  related stuff, join the undertow.
• 1:56
  It is a online community that I'm creating with two other co-founders,
• 2:00
  and we are creating this online app.
• 2:02
  It's coming out soon.
• 2:03
  We want you to join the waiting list.
• 2:05
  Just go to speak up for blue.com/join the undertow and we'll give
• 2:09
  you more information there.
• 2:10
  Let's get started with the show.
• 2:12
  Look, the plastic treaty has been talked about for the last couple of years.
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  I've had people on to talk about it from Oceana, from Monterey Bay Aquarium.
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  We've talked about the hopes.
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  We've talked about the challenges that we faced coming into the plastic
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  treaty or during the different meetings in the plastic treaty.
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  There were four meetings that I remember and that were done all over the world.
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  And they had people like nations come in from all over the world.
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  They had industry, they had nonprofit organizations, environmental NGOs and
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  other government departments that were coming in to say, Hey, you know what?
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  We want a plastic treaty.
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  And then of course the industry's like, Hey, you know what?
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  We don't really need a plastic treaty.
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  We don't need to limit plastic.
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  We need to build plastic.
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  'cause guess what?
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  30% of fossil fuel revenues come from creating plastic.
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  Plastic is a petroleum product.
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  I'm not sure if you knew that.
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  That's something I didn't know up until a couple of years ago.
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  But it's a petroleum product and the petroleum companies rely on one third
• 3:06
  of their business to create plastic.
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  So there's a reason for plastics to be in, and that's a greedy reason.
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  Now plastics also provide something that's very, you know, convenient for us.
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  You can have plastic straws, you can have plastic utensils or plastic water
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  bottles, all these different types of things that we use in our regular day.
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  But then you go on and a lot of things are used in plastics.
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  I'm looking around in my office here.
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  I've got two monitors.
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  I've got all these things that are encased in plastic, they're reusable plastic,
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  but eventually when they get discarded, which they will at some point in time.
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  They're not gonna break down easy.
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  Or when they do break down, it could end up in the ocean or they could end
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  up in a landfill that's not really properly discarded and managed.
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  And so that, here it comes a problem where we need better waste management
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  systems, even in developed countries like Canada and the US and other places.
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  And then we also need to be real about, are all these things recyclable?
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  Like we're told, you know, they're told if you have plastic put in the recycling bin.
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  But we've known over this podcast, we've been listening
• 4:02
  to this over the last 10 years.
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  You know that the recycling is pretty much a sham other than a few items that
• 4:08
  are local to you that might be like, hey.
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  in your region or your county, they might be able to, you know, recycle specific
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  plastics, but for the most part, they don't get recycled because the regular
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  old school coffee cups have this like wax on it that can't be separated.
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  So the actual material that is recyclable can't be recycled because of that
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  wax on it that keeps the cup intact.
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  Now you have a number of just like plastic cups that are single use that
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  just get thrown around, whether it be on the pavement or in a garbage or in
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  a recycling bin, but doesn't actually get recycled and ends up going to the
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  landfill, breaks down, chemicals break down, gets into our ecosystem, gets into
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  our environment, gets into our system.
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  There have been studies that show that air molecules contain microplastics.
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  You get sea salt that contains microplastic.
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  It's pretty much everywhere.
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  It's in our systems.
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  You know, I have two girls who are in the teenage age group and you know, I
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  can just imagine how much plastic they've had just in their environment over time.
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  And it's something that is very scary from a health perspective.
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  You know, it's been scary for a lot of conservationists before and
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  people who love the environment of what it's doing to our environment.
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  But as we keep telling people, eventually it ends up harming us.
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  And this has been harming us for a while, and the studies
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  are really just showing it.
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  And we've continued to allow for single use plastics and other plastics
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  to be used in our systems because it's convenient, because we want to
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  have that like rush of a lifestyle.
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  We don't slow down enough.
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  So if like we're thirsty, we're gonna go to a convenience store, we're gonna go to
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  a store and we're gonna get something in a plastic cup or in a plastic bottle, and
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  we're not gonna use our reusable bottles 'cause they're heavy and they're a pain
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  in the butt to bring around and so forth.
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  People think like that.
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  That's just, you know how people think whether we like it or not.
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  Or you can call them lazy, we can call 'em all these names.
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  People think like that and there's sometimes where you forget a water
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  bottle or you forget something, but you're really thirsty.
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  It's hot outside.
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  I don't know if you guys have had a bad summer in terms of
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  no rain and just pure heat.
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  but here in Canada we haven't had as bad as a lot of places around the
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  world that we're used to humidity, but we've had humidity almost all summer.
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  Normally it's just for a few weeks or maybe the last bit of August, or
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  just a part in August, maybe a little bit in July, but since the end of
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  June, we've had humidity up the wazoo.
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  and I'll tell you, like no rain, very, very little rain.
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  We've had rain, but not much, not what's necessary to keep everything moving.
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  You know, like keep our, ecosystem doing well and keeping our plants
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  watered and, just our regular ecosystem functioning going and
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  we're gonna pay for it eventually.
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  It's coming and we just don't know how it arrives, but we need some sort of
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  management, not only from a national perspective in each of our countries, but
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  also from an international perspective.
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  That's why the plastic treaty has been such an important part of creating
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  an international binding agreement.
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  You know, whether you think those are right or not, or people abide by them
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  or not, a binding agreement that allows countries to use as a legislative tool
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  and a conservation tool to put in laws that will regulate and manage single
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  use plastics and plastics in general.
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  As an example, I wanted to go over what Canada has done and I apologize for people
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  who have listened to this before because people who have listened to this, I've
• 7:14
  talked about this since it was announced and since it was put in, in 2021.
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  But essentially in 2021, the federal government in Canada designated plastics
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  as toxic under the CEPA in 2021.
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  So enabling regulatory measures like that ban on the certain single use plastics.
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  And then you have in 2023 the federal court rules and designation
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  unreasonable that all plastics are toxic and unconstitutional.
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  So it was challenged by chemical companies and by fossil fuel companies,
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  like large, large corporate companies that make and create plastics.
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  They said, Hey, you know what?
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  We want to continue making this.
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  We don't necessarily have a problem with the single use ban.
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  We just don't want all plastics to be designated as toxic
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  'cause we don't believe that.
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  We think that's just a general type of classification and it's not true.
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  And until you prove that, and this is what I love about industries, like
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  until you prove that it's bad for us and all plastics are bad for us, you
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  can't say that, that it's regulated.
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  And the reason why they put, you know, plastic is toxic in general
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  it allows them to create these tools like the single use ban plastics.
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  There's also a registry that's being created, a plastics registry that
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  will follow the plastics through the supply chain of its creation and
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  where it goes and how it's bought and everything, and how it's disposed of.
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  I assume there's gonna be some regulatory matter coming in the future when they
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  analyze that registry to find out of who's responsible for disposing of
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  these and creating a better product for these plastics and which plastics
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  are worse and which plastics are not as bad, and all sorts of things.
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  So I'm sure that's coming and that's what these companies are worried about.
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  They don't really care about the single use plastics ban that Canada
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  has, but they do care the fact that there's this overarching classification
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  that plastics are toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
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  So, they challenged it.
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  The federal court said, Hey, you know what, you can't just do that's
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  overly broad and unconstitutional.
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  And said the government failed to show that every such item poses a risk, which
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  I almost feel like it should be reversed.
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  I'm always of the mindset that it should be reversed.
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  If you have a company and you create a product, you should show
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  that it's not harmful to humans.
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  They should show it's not harmful to the environment.
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  If it is, you need to change it.
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  That's pretty much, it'll slow your process down, but come up with a better
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  product and you really use innovation.
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  Anyway, in summer of 2024, the appeal proceeded in around mid 2024 in June.
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  On June 25th, 2024, the Federal Court of Appeal heard arguments
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  both for and against the validity of the toxic classification.
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  The federal government asserted that all plastics, or at least those
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  that break down can cause harm, justifying the classification as
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  necessary for comprehensive regulation.
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  Environmental NGOs as well as health groups stepped in.
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  The Coalition of Health and environmental groups like the Davis Suzuki Foundation,
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  Greenpeace Canada, as well as others intervene in support of the government's
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  position saying that, the classification that all plastics toxic is necessary
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  for comprehensive regulation.
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  that's always good.
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  And then the decision for the appeal is still pending.
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  As of January 2025 and from what I've looked up, we have not been
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  able to see what has come out.
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  And if you do know if I missed it somehow, please let me know if
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  there's been a decision or not.
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  It is something that, you know, we're waiting on.
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  But what's nice is that the court granted a stay so that the regulation on single
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  use plastic ban can still go through.
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  What I worry about is that all other regulations that have been created for
• 10:30
  this or we're in the process of being created has pretty much put a pause on it.
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  'cause government doesn't wanna waste any type of work or money on something that
• 10:38
  may or may not be able to go through.
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  I think they should still be working on it personally but I can see a lot of
• 10:43
  people saying like, why are you doing this when at some point you're not gonna
• 10:47
  wanna do that or it might not be valid and you might not be able to do it.
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  So, I think that's probably what the holdup of some of the other
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  regulations that are coming out.
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  But it's nice to have.
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  It's nice that some of these countries like Canada are
• 10:58
  actually putting it through.
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  I think Costa Rica also banned single use plastics and then
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  some other countries as well.
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  That's a huge feat.
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  But as we speak now in August of 2025, if you're listening to
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  this until August 14th, 2025.
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  In Geneva, there is the Ink 5.2 negotiations underway.
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  So this is the plastic treaty.
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  So the fifth round is split into two sessions due to the slow progress.
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  So the current talks run until August 14th, but there's tension.
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  There's about 200 industry lobbyists in the room.
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  They are there to essentially slow down the process or essentially just get in
• 11:35
  its way, and start to put in certain caveats and exceptions that allow their
• 11:41
  companies that they represent to have
• 11:44
  these exceptions, and they can do pretty much whatever you want, but the
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  guardian reports, industry delegates outnumber the scientists at Geneva
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  talks and raising transparency concerns.
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  So they're worried about what's been happening and how once private
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  companies get involved that are not transparent and that have sort of
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  a devious or nefarious sort of act
• 12:00
  when they go there, they want to stop this plastic treaty from going on.
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  Let's be honest.
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  All these organizations, these corporations and stuff, they
• 12:07
  don't want, like the industry, they do not want this to happen.
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  It's gonna impede on their progress for money.
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  It's gonna impede on their progress for creating products for other people.
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  The plastic treaty is gonna slow down their growth essentially,
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  and that's what they want.
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  But you know, it's pretty big.
• 12:22
  Now, small island nations in the EU are pushing for caps on the number
• 12:27
  of plastic products that can be made.
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  Oil producing countries prefer waste management focus instead.
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  And so instead of banning or putting caps or a quota on the amount of plastic
• 12:36
  products that can come out, oil producing countries prefer waste management focus.
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  That's a worrisome because it's kind of like the climate change, you know, oil
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  producing companies depending on who's in charge of the government want to use
• 12:47
  carbon capture, which hasn't really been proven to work efficiently, as they say.
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  And so they abandon all other ways.
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  They're saying, no, we can actually just innovate our way out of it and we can
• 12:57
  create these carbon capture services, and then we can capture all the carbon.
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  Well, the same thing here.
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  Well, we can recycle and we can, you know, manage our waste better.
• 13:05
  But even in countries like Canada and the US and other countries.
• 13:08
  You know, we've known in the past that we've actually taken a lot of
• 13:11
  our recyclable material and we've shifted off to small island states.
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  So they have to dispose of it.
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  Now, we pay for them to dispose it, but then they don't really dispose of it.
• 13:20
  And when in a report came out saying 80% of the plastic pollution that's happening
• 13:24
  is happening in these small island states, people are like, well, why are
• 13:27
  these small island states doing this?
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  You know, larger developed states saying, Hey, you know what?
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  We're gonna just ship our stuff.
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  You guys can take care of it.
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  We'll just pay you money.
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  Outta sight outta mind.
• 13:35
  Well, that doesn't help.
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  Right?
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  That didn't help at all.
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  It vilified these small island states when we didn't know what was happening.
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  And now look what happens.
• 13:43
  We know that this whole recycling game is just garbage.
• 13:47
  It was allegedly created by the chemical industry, and fossil food industry
• 13:51
  to say, Hey, you know what, yeah, we're gonna create this stuff, but
• 13:53
  it's actually recyclable so you can reuse it over and over and over again.
• 13:56
  And we'll just create different products.
• 13:58
  We know that unless it has a market, it costs money to break
• 14:01
  it down, to create and somebody has to purchase the materials.
• 14:03
  there's not a market for a lot of this stuff and it's
• 14:04
  not sturdy enough for do it.
• 14:06
  For example, just allegedly, 'cause I don't know of this for sure, but water
• 14:10
  bottles that you have, like plastic water bottles can be used up to two
• 14:13
  times when it's taken down and rebuilt.
• 14:15
  After that, it just doesn't have the ability to hold as a water bottle.
• 14:18
  So that's a problem.
• 14:19
  Let's look at some of the people who are speaking out.
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  So we have the spotlight on small island stays pushing for bold cuts.
• 14:25
  So countries like Palau and Vanuatu argue for caps to protect fisheries and
• 14:29
  tourism economies 'cause once you know plastics get into the fish, it's not good.
• 14:33
  Professor Richard Thompson warns that without caps reuse systems
• 14:37
  and chemical controls, the treaty risks to be irrelevant.
• 14:40
  So without those controls in the treaty, without having a lot of
• 14:44
  regulations within there, we're having a lot of the ability for small island
• 14:47
  states as well as other countries to be able to put in these into place.
• 14:50
  The treaty's gonna be just a piece of paper and that's all it's gonna be.
• 14:53
  And we do not want that.
• 14:54
  It's like marine protected areas.
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  We don't want paper parks.
• 14:56
  Right.
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  Now the health toll that happens.
• 14:59
  So you got BPA, you got phthalates, you got pfas which disrupt hormones.
• 15:03
  They impair fertility and then they raise cancer risks.
• 15:05
  All these things are caused due to plastics, and they're
• 15:08
  linked to cardiovascular disease, cancer, and endocrine impacts.
• 15:12
  the us $1.5 trillion in health damages to that 400,000 death tied to BPA.
• 15:17
  That's crazy.
• 15:19
  so the Leny study, calculated costs from reduced productivity
• 15:22
  healthcare and premature death.
• 15:24
  Now, a shocking note, microplastics detected in humans reproductive organs.
• 15:27
  So in August, 2025, a study confirmed particles in testicular tissue
• 15:31
  potentially affected fertility.
• 15:33
  So we're gonna have lower fertility because of this.
• 15:35
  so, you know, you wonder if this treaty is actually going to come into play.
• 15:40
  At what point do we say we need to put this in?
• 15:42
  At what point do people stand up and say, this is an important part to us.
• 15:46
  The fact that it's affecting us and our children, microplastics have
• 15:50
  been found in breast milk and infant.
• 15:52
  That's how bad we are at the point.
• 15:54
  So when kids are born and they have formula, or they have breast milk
• 15:58
  right from the get go, they have microplastics components in them,
• 16:03
  and obviously that's not good.
• 16:04
  there's also equity concerns.
• 16:06
  So global south and development versus environmental justice.
• 16:09
  So low income nations fear caps could limit their economic
• 16:13
  growth if funding is not provided.
• 16:15
  So there's gonna have to be some type of funding.
• 16:18
  And then of course, you know, India argues for consensus
• 16:20
  without stifling development.
• 16:21
  So, India's position measures must align with sustainable development goals.
• 16:24
  So they have to fit within other legislative bodies or with
• 16:27
  other international agreements.
• 16:29
  All of this stuff is related to this plastic treaty, right?
• 16:34
  There are different aspects in this, and I can't break it down into one episode.
• 16:40
  I'm already getting long in this episode.
• 16:42
  But it's something where if we have a system where we do not control our
• 16:46
  plastic pollution, we are going to have
• 16:49
  significant impacts on our health of our bodies, as well as our
• 16:54
  ecosystems, and we can't afford that.
• 16:57
  We are in a position right now in the world where things are really boiling and
• 17:02
  to a point where it's getting really bad.
• 17:04
  We need to have some controls.
• 17:06
  We can't just let corporations and companies continue to take
• 17:09
  over and continue to drive.
• 17:11
  economy over environmental health.
• 17:14
  So we need to ensure that we are building a stronger, more resilient
• 17:19
  society by controlling the stuff that's, you know, can impede that and that is
• 17:24
  microplastics and plastic pollution.
• 17:27
  There are certain things that you can do to help.
• 17:29
  The first thing that I would do if you were watching this before August 14th,
• 17:33
  is go to your government representative and say, we want a plastic treaty.
• 17:39
  We want our country.
• 17:40
  So for me, it'd be Canada to sign on to the plastic treaty.
• 17:43
  And we wanted to make sure that we are protected from our health
• 17:47
  concerns and our environmental concerns from plastic pollution.
• 17:51
  That'd be the first thing that I would like you to do.
• 17:53
  You could also follow, like Greenpeace Plastic Pollution Coalition, surf
• 17:57
  Rider Foundation that are running campaigns and volunteer on those
• 18:01
  campaigns or help share those campaigns on social media and so forth.
• 18:04
  Small actions that you can do is just look around and eliminate the
• 18:09
  single use plastics in your life.
• 18:12
  There are a lot of single-use plastics in your life.
• 18:14
  If you can eliminate where it fits within your lifestyle.
• 18:16
  You will have to change a little bit.
• 18:18
  You might have to change certain type of products that you use.
• 18:21
  You might have to change certain things that you do, but you can do those small
• 18:23
  changes 'cause they add up to large, large, you know, betterments of our world.
• 18:27
  And so that's huge.
• 18:28
  So just municipal bans on single-use plastics have cut
• 18:31
  plastic bag litter by 70%.
• 18:32
  That's huge right.
• 18:33
  In certain municipalities, so that's good.
• 18:35
  And the big thing is, is like we all have a stake in this.
• 18:39
  In the plastic crisis.
• 18:40
  And so we should all act.
• 18:41
  This is not just, oh, let the environmental NGOs do it or
• 18:44
  let the governments handle it.
• 18:45
  This is all of us.
• 18:46
  This is all of us.
• 18:47
  You look at your families, you look at your kids, you look at your
• 18:49
  parents, you look at your neighbors and so forth, your community, and
• 18:53
  you can say, if we take this action.
• 18:55
  We are bettering our society, we are making our society more resilient
• 18:59
  towards plastic pollution because there'll be less plastic pollution.
• 19:02
  So that's where I want to end it today.
• 19:05
  I would love to hear, your suggestions.
• 19:07
  What we can do, let me know in the comments below.
• 19:09
  If you're listening to this on YouTube or hit me up with an email, go to speak
• 19:14
  up for blue.com/contact, fill it out.
• 19:17
  It goes right to my email.
• 19:18
  Or you can hit me up on Instagram, DM me at how to protect the ocean.
• 19:21
  It's at how to protect the ocean.
• 19:23
  I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode
• 19:25
  of the How to Protect the Ocean.
• 19:27
  I'm your host Andrew Lewin from the true nor strong and free, have a great day.
• 19:30
  We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.