INC-4 Day 3, April 25, 2024 GAIA Priorities Remain on the Table in Contact Groups Member States remained in contact groups for the entirety of the day, and discussions were wide-ranging. GAIA’s key priorities have remained in play: reduction of primary plastic polymers, eradication of toxic chemicals in products, scaling up reuse systems, and enshrining a just transition.  Financial Mechanism: Who Foots the Bill?  The question of financing is make-or-break for this treaty.  Many Global South countries are demanding strong financing measures that hold high-producing countries acc ..read more

INC-4 Day 2, April 24, 2024 Contact Groups continued to second day Member States and Observers were in contact groups to continue to hammer out agreement on text. Contact group 1 is focused on parts I and II of the revised Zero Draft (the basis for treaty text), which cover the scope and objectives of the instrument,  particularly how to address the life cycle of plastics. This is where the debate over plastic reduction (or what is being referred to as reduction of PPP– primary plastic polymers) is taking place.  Contact group 2 focuses on parts III and IV of the revised Zero Draft ..read more

Ahead of the ADB’s Annual Meeting next month, civil society groups are firmly calling on the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to go back to the drawing board and overhaul the draft Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) as written in its current form. To demonstrate their grave concerns that the policy provisions will undermine project-affected people and their allies abilities to hold ADB to account when social and environmental harms and damages occur, they intend to deliver a statement to the ADB Headquarters in Manila this morning. The draft ESF, aimed at updating ADB’s safeguards policies ..read more

Watch the video × Your browser does not support the video tag. GAIA MEMBERS FROM THE GLOBAL SOUTH HAVE A MESSAGE AT INC-4: WE DIDN’T START THE PLASTIC CRISIS, BUT TOGETHER, WE CAN END IT! Thanks to the tireless work of the #breakfreefromplastic movement and GAIA members around the world, in March of 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly decided on a mandate to create the world’s first Plastics Treaty, a legally binding international law aimed at reducing plastic pollution worldwide, covering the full life-cycle of plastic. This is a historic step forward in the fight against pla ..read more

Los líderes mundiales se reunirán este mes para negociar recortes en la producción de plásticos en el marco del Tratado de plásticos PARA PUBLICACIÓN INMEDIATA: 19 de abril, 2024 Berkeley, California, Estados Unidos– Antes de la cuarta ronda de negociaciones de las Naciones Unidas para un tratado global sobre plásticos que se llevará a cabo del 23 al 29 de abril en Ottawa, el Laboratorio Nacional Lawrence Berkeley (LBNL) publicó un estudio pionero que revela el enorme impacto climático de la producción de plástico. La Alianza Global para Alternativas a la Incineración (GAIA) ha preparado un in ..read more

Global Leaders to Meet This Month to Negotiate Production Cuts in Plastics Treaty FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: APRIL 19, 2024 Berkeley, CA, USA– In advance of the fourth round of United Nations negotiations for an international plastics treaty in Ottawa April 23-29, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) has released a groundbreaking study revealing the enormous climate impact of plastic production. The report’s findings reinforce the importance of the treaty covering the entire life cycle of plastic, from extraction to disposal, as enshrined in the 175-country agreement Resolution 5/14 ..read more

A Success Story from the Markets of Warwick Written by Lily Nobel Over the last 3 years, the Warwick zero waste composting project has taken food waste from the Early Morning Market (EMM) in the Markets of Warwick (a neighborhood in Durban, South Africa) and transformed it into nutrient-rich compost at the Durban Botanic Gardens. As landfills in South Africa are rapidly filling up, this project showcases the power of utilizing small spaces and limited resources to reduce methane emissions from the waste sector — a greenhouse gas 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide. According to the UNEP ..read more

Controversy on Waste: To Burn or Not to Burn? Canada in the Spotlight as Host of Plastics Treaty Negotiations FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: APRIL 4, 2024 While Canada is set to host the next round of the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations April 23-29, Canadian groups are raising an alarm about the expansion of waste incineration across the country. Dubbed “waste-to-energy” (WTE) by industry, burning waste through methods like incineration, gasification and pyrolysis is a practice that would undermine federal climate, plastics, and waste management policies. “Canada has goals to end plastic pollution ..read more

Sign the letter! Canada is among the most wasteful countries in the world and most of our waste could be avoided, recycled or composted. Canada has goals to decrease waste by 30% by 2030 and 50% by 2040, to end plastic waste by 2040, and to reduce landfill methane emissions by 50% by 20301.2 Reaching even these goals will require ambitious and immediate actions to reduce waste.  Waste to Energy (WTE) (sometimes called energy from waste) includes different technologies for disposing waste through a high-temperature process such as mass burn incineration, gasification, and pyrolysis. WTE is ..read more

By Chaima Ktaifi Ramadan is the fasting month. Fasting from eating and drinking encourages spiritual reflection and increases devotion and self-discipline. It is also the best time to stop bad habits, including food waste. Unfortunately, with increased food consumption this month, it’s easy to fall into the trap of creating more waste than necessary. In Tunisia, about 900.000 pieces of bread are wasted and thrown away daily, which is the equivalent of 100.000 USD; moreover, according to the National Institute of Consumption, one-third of the cooked food is wasted and thrown away, the equivale ..read more