A Pro-Environmental Value Construct to Deal With Plastic Pollution

Introduction

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 17 in total, adopted in 2015 by all the Member States of the United Nations, are clear indicators of where the People and the Planet are at the onset of the 21^st century. The SDGs remind us of the evidently large gaps in the global efforts to deal with the fundamental problems of the world such as poverty and inequality. The world, in 2020, with a human population of about 7.8 billion, is starkly unequal when it comes to access to decent living, resources and justice. Nearly 700 million people, in 2015, were estimated to be living in extreme poverty. Needless to mention, large proportions of the population have limited or no access to nutritious food, education, healthcare, housing, clean water and sanitation, gainful employment etc. With Covid-19 related economic meltdown across the world, people living under extreme poverty is expected to go up, reversing the twenty-year global trend of decreasing extreme poverty levels.¹ Further the situation has turned more difficult and uncertain due to environmental degradation, Climate Change and its impact on agricultural production. Therefore, the UN SDGs, among others, justifiably aim to protect the environment and promote sustainable communities practicing responsible consumption. Undoubtedly, the UN SDGs, if sincerely implemented by the member countries, will promote peace and prosperity for people and the planet.

One of the obstacles to sustainable environment is plastics pollution. It can seriously impede the implementation of the programs that could help achieve the UN SDGs. Plastics pollute land, water and air threatening all forms of life. From the peaks of the mountains in Himalayas to the bottom of the deepest trench in the Pacific Ocean, plastic waste could be found everywhere.^2,3 Remote uninhabited islands in the vast oceans have been found to be polluted with plastics.⁴ Large number of animals and birds are known to have died due to ingestion of plastics.⁵ Plastics in the form of microplastics have been found in food chains as well, threatening human wellbeing.⁶ Toxic fumes emerging from landfills burning across the countries in Asia and Africa, that do not have in place a strong waste management infrastructure, adversely affect their populations. Further, the chemicals used on plastic coating are toxic and they could pose serious health hazard to all forms of life when it mixes with the environment. Thus, we can say impact of plastic pollution will have serious consequences to food security and safety, public health, biodiversity and the environment which are at the heart of the SDGs.

It is clear that plastic pollution is a serious obstacle to the meaningful attainment of UN SDGs. To put it differently, how can we possibly promote Good Health and Well Being (SDG-3) when afflictions caused by plastic pollution and toxicity is rampant in land, air and water? Or how can Life Below Water (SDG-14) be improved when plastics in the form of microplastics is killing marine life? When large number of mammals are being washed ashore due to plastic ingestion, how can we possibly achieve the Goal without addressing the flow of plastics into the oceans? When landfills heaped in plastics waste burn and cause dangerous ailments among the poor communities living around them, how can we possibly improve Life on Land (SDG-15) without addressing the issue of plastic pollution? Or how about the wildlife that perish due to plastic ingestion? Hence it is needless to say, unless the issue of plastic pollution is addressed with seriousness, UN SDGs will remain unattainable. Especially, as plastics break into smaller microlevel particles, they will become ever harder to deal with, and their impact could be disastrous to life. It is therefore absolutely essential to deal with Plastic Pollution in an urgent manner.