Features
Managing Plastic Pollution as a Collective Responsibility
WORLD CONSUMER RIGHTS DAY-2021
By Chandrika Thilakaratne
CEO, Sri Lanka Accreditation Board
World Consumer Rights day is marked each year on March 15 under a theme which is remarkably important for consumer health and safety and environment. Consumers International (CI), the world organization for consumer groups working on consumers rights and responsibilities, has declared 2021 world Consumer Rights Day theme as “Tackling Plastic Pollution” considering its global importance. According to internationally accepted consumer rights, all consumers have right to safety and to live in a healthier environment. In order to protect the planet and provide fair social conditions for current and future generations, we need to think about the way we produce and consume goods and services. Sustainable consumption is about doing more and better with less use of resources. Its aim is to increase resource efficiency and fair trade while helping to alleviate poverty and enable everyone to enjoy a good quality of life with access to food, water, energy, medicine and more.
Plastic is a useful material in our everyday lives, but our consumption and production of plastics, especially single-use plastic, have become unsustainable. This is impacting our ecosystems, causing negative environmental consequences, including pollution of the local and international environment, and threatening human health. As per the information given by the Consumers international, by the year 2050 it is estimated that there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish.
Further CI states that 8 million tons of plastic enters our oceans every year. Single use plastics account for 50 percent of the plastic produced every year. Further it is alarming to note that half of all plastics ever manufactured have been made in the last 15 years and 40% of plastic produced is packaging and discarded after one use.
Systemic marketplace change is required at all levels from government, regulatory agencies, businesses, standard setters, testing and Certification bodies, accreditation bodies and consumers to manage plastic pollution and promote sustainable consumption and production.
This is something that everyone at any level starting from plastic produces, businesses who are using plastic in different stages of their production, packaging industry, and consumers, could practise.
As a socially responsible and conscious producer/ consumer it is high time to think in what ways we can contribute to the global need to reduce plastic pollution. Further, this movement should be encouraged by the government introducing sensible policies and programs to manage plastic pollution in the Country.
Do our regulations effective in tackling plastic pollution?
Sri Lanka has introduced several regulations to curb plastic pollution time to time. We need to evaluate the contribution of these regulations and see whether they have achieved expected results.
Even though the regulations are introduced, due to lack of monitoring and enforcement we could not achieve expected results up to now. Some regulations in force such as trader cannot charge from the consumer for bags/wrappers issued to the consumer at the time of selling a product has undoubtedly created a huge negative impact on reducing plastic pollution in Sri Lanka.
The regulatory agencies such as Central Environmental Authority, Consumer Affairs Authority, Marine environmental Protection Authority etc need to do Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) to see the impact of current regulations and their effectiveness in reducing plastic pollution. Whenever there are changes in the regulations required, urgent steps have to be taken to introduce such changes. In managing plastic pollution regulatory agencies have a pivotal role to play.
Contribution of Standards and Labelling
Consumer demand for sustainable products helps to promote circular and regenerative economy. Accessible information is one of the most important ways to support consumers in their everyday purchase decisions.
Following ISO standards will help the packaging /product manufacturers in developing their packaging/products in environmentally friendly manner.
Recycled Content
ISO 14021 – Environmental labels and declarations — Self-declared environmental claims (Type II environmental labelling)
For self-declared environmental claims, including recycled content and recycled material
Materials and recyclability
ISO 18604 – Packaging and the environment — Material recycling
Compostable and Biodegradable
ISO 18606-Packaging and the environment – Organic Recycling
Eco Labels
ISO 14020 – Environmental labels and declarations – General Principles
ISO 14024- Environmental labels and declarations – Type 1 Environmental labelling – Type 1 label is a voluntary, multiple criteria based third party program that awards a license which authorize the use of environmental labels on products, indicating overall environmental preferability of a product within a particular product category based on lifecycle considerations.
In order for the industry to encourage the use of above standards, the government has to play a facilitative role by providing necessary infrastructure such as research and development and testing facilities. Currently, there is a need to promote accredited testing facilities for the industry on packaging material testing. Further, currently there is a need to develop a national guideline on ecolabelling.
In order to contribute to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) No 12 Sustainable Consumption and production, we all have a collective responsibility to make changes in the way that our society produce and consume goods and services. The Government, the business sector and the consumers must contribute in their capacity to changing unsustainable consumption and production patterns to sustainable consumption and production patterns.