Countries must curb production now and tackle plastic’s full life cycle, says Norwegian minister Anne Beathe Tvinnereim ahead of key UN talks this week

Summary

The world faces an unmanageable plastic waste crisis within a decade unless countries agree to significant production cuts, warned Norway’s Anne Beathe Tvinnereim ahead of critical UN treaty talks in South Korea.

Divisions persist between plastic-producing nations, like the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, and a coalition of 60+ countries advocating for reductions across plastics’ life cycle.

Plastic use and waste are projected to triple by 2060, threatening health, biodiversity, and the climate.

The talks aim to address single-use plastics, toxic chemicals, and global production limits, but consensus remains elusive.

  • @[email protected]English
    15•19 hours ago

    Put the onus on the manufacturers. With multinational conglomerates making record profits while the rest of nearly everyone faces steep headwinds just to survive, it should be obvious where to assess the corrective costs required to solve a problem created by environmentally callous manufacturing.

    Blaming Consumers for Supply side issues is fucking asinine and also never going to solve the issue. Our government (US) has just refused to take the bulls by the horns for the last 40 years, while climate scientists are hoarse from screaming their warnings from every rooftop.

    • mortimerEnglish
      7•16 hours ago

      Correct. The problem could be solved overnight if manufacturers were heavily fined for producing such excessive and unnecessary packaging in the first place. Instead however, here in the UK, it’s the “consumer” who is expected to act like a dancing monkey and sort out all the waste into different categories and dispense the stuff in one of the wheelie bins that keep getting delivered to my door (wheelie bins which are ironically made from plastic). Makes me want to smash up the wheelie bins and dump them in the plastic recycling wheelie bin.

  • @[email protected]English
    2•15 hours ago

    It’s fine. All the people will just absorb into their bodies and then no more problems.

    • @ikiddEnglish
      8•21 hours ago

      Always were.

  • @CascadianGiraffeEnglish
    4•20 hours ago

    We need to consume less disposables, but few of us are willing to tolerate even the slightest inconvenience. I’m not sure you can fix that problem without education at a young age. If you can’t fix the human greed issue, then you need to learn how to control it. Stop letting corporations and billionaires have all the money. If the population has a higher income, they can afford to pay for things that cost more to produce in a sustainable fashion.

    Nationalize Corporations and use the profits to fund UBI and disability programs.

  • Flying SquidMEnglish
    38•1 day ago

    I wouldn’t call it manageable now. I also am not sure plastic will be our biggest climate problem by 2060. If anything, I’m guessing they’re not predicting a major factor which might make plastic usage shoot way down.

    • themeatbridgeEnglish
      10•1 day ago

      Whether we use the term “cope” or “manage” it’s pretty clear that our ability is far less impactful than our willingness.

      • SternEnglish
        12•1 day ago

        look buddy, number needs to go up, and god as my witness i will murder every endangered animal, burn every rainforest, and fill every river with plastic waste to do it

  • @CoreidanEnglish
    10•1 day ago

    Hey Chief, I don’t know what planet you think you currently live on but here on Earth the plastic issue is already well past being unmanageable.