Everyone is aware that plastic pollution has increased uncontrollably and exacerbated the pressure on the environment. According to a study commissioned by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, by 2050 there will be more litter than fish swimming in the seas. In the research, it was pointed out that 8 million tons of plastic garbage enter the seas every year already. This is the equivalent of a truck of waste being dumped in the sea every minute. In light of this pressing problem, many international institutions and organizations, especially the United Nations, the European Union and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), called for urgent measures and accelerated their work on the subject.

In recent months, the global plastic problem was discussed at the OECD and U.N. Environment Assembly (UNEA) meetings. Turkey also participated in these meetings and presented its comments on national priorities and plastics. The UNEA, made up of 193 U.N. member states, convened its session, known as "UNEA 5.2," in Kenya’s Nairobi from Feb. 28 to March 2 in 2022, one year after the fifth assembly took place in February 2021 (UNEA 5.1).

An Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee (INC) will be established to draft a legally binding agreement by 2024, in accordance with the decision adopted in the meeting "End Plastic Pollution: Towards an internationally legally binding instrument." The agreement is expected to address the full lifecycle of plastics, including production, design and disposal, as well as the design of reusable and recyclable products and materials.

For the last UNEA gathering, the particular importance of the policies and actions to reduce both land-based and marine plastic pollution were highlighted. Also, thanks to the Zero Waste Project carried out under the auspices of Turkey’s first lady, Emine Erdoğan, the recycling rate increased from 13% in 2017 to 22% in 2020 and is predicted to reach 35% in 2023. By implementing a charge for plastic bags in 2019, a 65% reduction was achieved. Turkey has also started preparing the national circular economy action plan that will focus on limiting single-use plastics.

The OECD report

The OECD report on the global plastics outlook provides an up-to-date overview of the current state of plastic production, plastic waste generation and leakage into the environment. It also aims to inform and support ongoing policy efforts to reduce negative environmental impacts along the plastic value chain. The report highlights the messages critical to an in-depth understanding of current challenges and effective action.

One of the main findings of the OECD's report shows that global plastic waste generation more than doubled from 2000 to 2019 to 353 million tons.

During the OECD’s March 2022 environment meeting, the ministers and high-level representatives from the OECD’s 38 member countries and the European Union, as well as Bulgaria, Croatia, Peru and Romania, committed in a formal OECD declaration to intensify their work on climate and the environment. The main theme of the meeting was "Ensuring a Resilient and Healthy Environment for All." Within these efforts, they decided to consider actions such as doing more to reduce biodiversity loss, addressing plastic pollution, aligning finances with environmental targets and accelerating climate change action to limit temperatures rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

In the declaration adopted at the end of the meeting, the ministers committed to the issues mentioned below: