The Global EPS Sustainability Alliance Supports a Global Plastics Agreement that Creates a Circular Economy for All Plastics and Eliminates Plastic Pollution
The GESA coalition of global EPS organizations, representing Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America are actively participating in the United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (UN INC) on Plastic Pollution meetings. GESA advocates for the following positions:
We support an ambitious plan to eliminate plastic pollution through an implementable agreement.
We support the position that an agreement should increase circularity that protects the environment and be sufficiently flexible to allow for different solutions to address other impacts at the various stages of the lifecycle, considering national circumstances. Prescriptive measures will not accommodate the diversity of consumer and social behaviors, production practices, waste management capacity, and environmental factors across countries. We also recognize the importance of using science- and evidence-based approaches in how parties take action on plastic pollution.
We support the creation of independent national plans of action.
We support a country-driven agreement that allows nations to set their own local action plans versus a one-size-fits-all approach to the issue of eliminating plastic pollution. We support an agreement that considers a country’s unique legal, economic, and societal issues. We should have governmental action plans and enabling policies with national targets for reducing plastic waste, increasing the use of recycled content, and prioritizing high leakage applications. We believe a country-driven agreement can better produce meaningful solutions to plastic waste than an international top-down mandate that would disrupt the distribution of life-saving medicines and vital medical equipment, shorten the lifespan of fresh food, further reducing narrow profit margins and increasing distribution costs, and most critically, create barriers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
We support flexibility to achieve circularity and oppose lists of banned or restricted polymers, ingredients, and products.
Broad bans and restrictions would lead to undesirable outcomes that are counterproductive to climate goals, forcing consumers to use products with a worse environmental profile, often with less tested performance properties. Any global agreement claiming EPS as hazardous or problematic would also contradict many existing global government positions. For example, EPS is approved for food contact within most of the food and drug safety agencies throughout the world, contradicting the notion it is harmful to human health.
We support the adoption of science-based tools including life cycle analysis.
It is essential that checks and balances are established when addressing material substitutions. Any criteria to evaluate plastic materials must be conducted for individual polymer formulations, not an entire polymer family. We support the development of robust sustainability evaluation protocols that include essentiality, good manufacturing practices, compliance with existing minimum chemical safety requirements and end-of-life disposal using CE priority rankings.
We support policies that accelerate the implementation of UN SDGs.
Any agreement must not harm the ability of nations to also achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). It is vital to understand that the elimination of plastics products that have critical uses is not necessary to achieve the goal to eliminate plastic waste. In fact, plastic product applications can contribute to the advancement of certain SDGs. As such, we encourage private companies, foundations, and governments to accelerate SDG 2 Zero Hunger, SDG 9 Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production, and SDG 13 Climate Action. For example, EPS packaging ensures food reaches those who need it most without perishing, thereby advancing SDG 2. EPS insulation and construction materials make buildings and transportation more resilient to weather, more cost-effective, and energy efficient, helping to advance SDG 9 and SDG 11. EPS requires less materials and energy for manufacturing, while also being recycled into new products supporting SDG 12. Last, EPS insulation reduces energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, supporting SDG 13.
Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) is an essential packaging material that plays an important role in sustainable society today and in the future.
Observer Submissions on Behalf of the EPS Industry & GESA
The European Manufacturers of EPS (EUMEPS), the EPS Industry Alliance (EPS-IA) and Expanded Polystyrene Australia (EPSA) are accredited observers of the UNEP Plastics Pollution Treaty and are actively engaged in the proceedings.
Global EPS Sustainability Alliance 