Globally, some 400 million tonnes of plastic waste are produced each year. Researchers must play their part in designing adequate measurement, monitoring and compliance systems.
found in shallow and deep coral reefs at 25 locations across the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian ocean basins. Even the deeper reefs, lying at depths of 30–150 metres, were found to be polluted; until now, the impact of plastics on these reefs has been little studiedBoth studies will be important to talks, now under way at the United Nations, on a treaty to eliminate plastic pollution.
The study by Nava and her colleagues highlights another facet of any meaningful treaty: getting measurements right. Countries will need to discuss and agree a standard or system for how they measure plastic pollution. Navadeveloped a protocol for categorizing and measuring plastic pollution in freshwater samples and applied it to samples collected at the surface of 38 lakes and reservoirs, most of them in the Northern Hemisphere.
The plastics treaty is on a supercharged schedule. Talks began in March 2022 and are due to conclude with a final text in 2024. If that happens, countries are expected to incorporate the treaty into national laws in 2025. Environmental treaties often take between 5 and 15 years to complete, and accelerating the process could compel nations to focus on the essentials. However, at the most recent negotiating session, which concluded last month in Paris, countries spent most of the week discussing how they would make decisions. To adhere to the rapid timetable, subsequent sessions will need to get down to detail more quickly.
For the treaty negotiations to be successful, countries must commit to being held accountable. Not having a group within the negotiations charged with ensuring measurement and compliance could be a costly error. The time between now and the next session, due to be held in Nairobi in November, offers a valuable and urgent opportunity for researchers to get their voices heard — so that we can finally start to reduce the stark toll of plastic pollution on the global environment.
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