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Combating Plastic Pollution in International Law: Lex Lata and Lex Ferenda
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A legal analysis of international plastic pollution frameworks finds that no existing global instrument provides mandatory, measurable targets for reducing plastic waste across its full lifecycle. Closing this regulatory gap is critical, as fragmented international law has failed to curb the 22% of plastic waste annually released into environments where it breaks down into microplastics.
Global plastic production increased from 1.5 million tons in 1950 to 390 million tons in 2021, of which only 9% was recycled, 19% was incinerated, almost 50% was disposed of in landfills and 22% was dumped in areas where this waste could be openly burned or released back into the environment. Plastics have changed the global economy and the lives of billions of people for the better. However, their use comes with significant environmental and social costs. Plastic waste negatively affects human health and the environment. The life cycle of plastics covers the entire spectrum of activities, from raw material extraction, production, distribution, and use, to its disposal as waste, and environmental problems can arise at any stage of the plastic life cycle. Most plastic degrades very slowly in the environment. There are currently a number of international commitments to reduce marine litter and plastic waste, particularly from land-based sources, as well as several applicable international agreements and soft law instruments related to trade in plastics or reducing impacts on marine life. However, none of the international documents provides a global, mandatory, specific, and measurable targets for reducing plastic pollution. In this regard, many states, as well as commercial actors and civil society, are calling for the adoption of a global instrument to regulate marine pollution from litter and plastics. In this article, significant attention is paid to the analysis of a future treaty aimed at combating plastic pollution. This study is based on the analysis of a large volume of materials, including international legal acts, advisory acts, and modern doctrinal studies by Russian and foreign authors. The methodological basis of the study was general scientific (logical and systemic analysis, dialectical method, methods of deduction and induction) and special scientific (historical-legal, comparative-legal, formal legal methods, legal modelling and forecasting), and methods of cognition. In the course of the study, various international acts of a mandatory and recommendatory nature were analysed, the doctrinal positions set out in the scientific literature and put forward by domestic and foreign legal scholars were summarized, and the main problems of combating plastic pollution were identified. Within the framework of this article, an attempt has been made to give answers to the following questions: To what extent is the problem of plastic pollution an important challenge for modern international law? Does current international law effectively regulate the problem of plastic pollution? What should the content of a new treaty on plastic be? And what are the positions of states on the content of such a treaty?
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Combating plastic pollution in international law: lex lata and lex ferenda
AI summary Read the abstract
This paper examines the current state of international law addressing plastic pollution, analyzing both existing legal frameworks and proposed future regulations. The study highlights that global plastic production has surged to 390 million tons annually with only 9% recycled, underscoring the urgent need for a comprehensive international treaty.
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This research examined the prospects for tackling marine plastic pollution through negotiations on a globally legally binding plastic agreement under UNEP auspices. The study concluded that while the treaty represents a significant advance over existing fragmented frameworks, significant challenges remain due to contradictory options in the draft text and difficulties reaching global consensus on binding provisions.
Research on the Global Marine Plastic Pollution Prevention and Control from the Perspective of International Law
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This paper examines international legal frameworks for addressing marine plastic pollution, identifying key gaps such as fragmented legislation and weak enforcement mechanisms. It proposes pathways forward including advancing a Global Plastics Agreement and better coordinating hard and soft law instruments.
Marine plastic pollution governance: the role and challenges of international law
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A review of international legal frameworks for marine plastic pollution finds current governance fragmented and inadequate, calling for a lifecycle-based international legal regime to address the full chain of plastic production, use, and disposal. Strengthening international law is essential for systemic microplastic reduction, as ocean connectivity means that plastic—and the microplastics it becomes—cannot be managed effectively by individual nations alone.
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