Comment: No plastic agreement – so will we continue to litter the world?

The global negotiations on a plastics agreement have become a huge embarrassment. Government representatives from 180 countries were unable to agree on a common agreement until the very end. The meeting in Geneva could not have ended worse – although it must be said: This outcome was to be expected. Before the final round of negotiations on the plastics agreement even began, it was clear that the talks would be difficult and slow, just like all four previous rounds.

The demands and ideas of the individual states diverged too widely. As with the annual climate negotiations, it was once again the oil-rich states that blocked the processes and insisted on their particular economic interests. They have apparently not yet understood the danger or are deliberately ignoring it. The fact that the countries were unable to put aside their differences and find a common compromise is a diplomatic disgrace.

Anyone who glosses over the failure of the negotiations by saying that no agreement is better than a bad one is mistaken. Even a compromise with less ambitious regulations would have been better than business as usual, as will now happen. Also because a light agreement would have been a starting point for further negotiations.

Now, instead, we're back to square one. Plastic can continue to be produced and disposed of unregulated. And whether further negotiations will even take place is unclear. This means that the plastic crisis will continue to worsen. That even more plastic can pollute the environment and make us humans sick.

Globally coordinated action to curb the plastics crisis is urgently needed, because we have long since lost control of it.

To understand the magnitude of the problem, you don't even have to look at the overflowing landfills in South Asia or the massive plastic vortex that has been floating in the Pacific for years like a memorial. The so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch now covers an area more than four times the size of Germany.

It's enough to look around your immediate surroundings. In the streets, the forests, or on the beaches, where plastic waste is rotting. Or in your own garbage containers and garbage bags, where vast amounts of plastic accumulate every week – not all of which is properly recycled, but also exported abroad. The problem is simply shifted.

It has long been clear that plastic, once released into the environment, can cause immense damage. It poisons ecosystems, kills animals, and endangers human health. Tiny plastic particles can penetrate deep into the human body—some have even been found in the brain. The exact effects of so-called microplastics on organs are not yet fully understood.

Because we don't know the exact consequences of plastic, it's important to take action now. A global plastics agreement that sets concrete rules for production, consumption, and disposal is essential.

The states must therefore resume their negotiations – and at the same time, the pressure on the oil-producing countries must be significantly increased. Because the plastics problem is likely to grow rather than shrink: According to OECD estimates, global plastic waste could reach almost 800 million tons by 2050. Continuing to litter the earth and thus causing lasting damage cannot and must not be in the interest of the entire world.