Plastic Pollution Prevention in Pacific Island Countries: Gap analysis of current legislation, policies and plans August 2020 CONTENTS Ocean List of Figures 4 Waste Prevention 34 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS List of Tables 5 Market restrictions, virgin plastics, and trade in safe plastics 34 This report was prepared by Dr Trisia National reduction targets 34 6 Farrelly (Massey University Political Executive Summary Ecology Research Centre [PERC], Virgin plastic use 34 New Zealand), Dr Stephanie Borrelle Key Recommendations 7 (University of Toronto, Canada) and Dr Market restrictions 35 Sascha Fuller (University of Newcastle, Acronyms 8 Australia) for the Environmental Promotion of traditional solutions 35 Investigation Agency (EIA). Background 10 Waste Management 38 The team acknowledges, with gratitude, the support of the Center for International Aims 12 Closed loop recycling 38 Environmental Law (CIEL) and World Wildlife Fund – Pacific; Environmental Methods 12 Sustainable financial mechanisms and infrastructure investments 38 Law Oceania; Island Sustainability Alliance; and participating countries. Pacific Islands countries and documents analysed 17 Extended producer responsibility 40 Analysis 18 Economic development 40 Remediation and legacy pollution (recovery) 40 International and Regional Plastic Policy Overview 18 Transport (including reverse logistics/backloading) 41 International Policy Overview 18 Standardisation 44 Regional Policy Overview 21 National monitoring, reporting and inventories 44 Regional Plans and Strategies 24 Transparency of information, freedom of information and labelling 44 Regional Public-Private Partnerships 25 Enforcement 45 Summary 25 Definitions 45 Country Level Gap Analysis 26 Microplastics 48 Global Objectives 26 Key recommendations 52 Long-term elimination of discharges 26 Global Objectives 52 Safe circular economy for plastics 27 Long-term elimination of discharges 52 Intergenerational equity and justice 27 Safe circular economy and human health 52 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 28 Intergenerational equity and justice 52 Protection of human health 28 SDGs 52 Vertical integration 29 Protection of human health 52 Horizontal integration 29 Vertical Integration 52 Waste hierarchy 30 Horizontal integration 53 Precautionary approach 30 Precautionary approach 54 Climate Change 30 2 Environmental Investigation Agency PLASTIC POLLUTION PreveNTION IN PACIfIC ISLANd countrIeS 3 Waste hierarchy 54 LIST OF TABLES Climate Change 54 Table 1: Analytical Framework including the categories, themes and definitions based on the EIA Pillars of Action and supporting Waste Prevention 54 documents. 16 Market restrictions, virgin plastics, and trade in safe plastics 54 Table 2: International Conventions ratified, signed or acceded by the Pacific Island Countries examined here. Green represents the countries Virgin plastics 54 are party to the agreement, yellow that they have participated and/or acknowledged they will sign (but have not yet). 22 National reduction targets 54 Table 3: Regional Instruments ratified, signed or acceded by the Pacific Waste management 55 Island Countries examined here. Green represents the countries are party to the agreement. 26 Sustainable financial mechanisms and infrastructure investments 55 Table 4: Global Objectives gap analysis of key documents using the Extended producer responsibility 55 analytical framework. Green indicates explicit mention of the theme in the document; yellow indicates that the document either partially Container deposit schemes 55 includes the theme or that it is inferred; and red indicates that that theme is absent in the document. 32 Remediation and recovery 55 Table 5: Waste Prevention gap analysis of key documents using the Transport/Backloading 56 analytical framework. Green indicates explicit mention of the theme in the document; yellow indicates that the document either partially Standardisation 56 includes the theme or that it is inferred; and red indicates that that theme is absent in the document. 36 National monitoring, reporting and inventories 56 Table 6: Waste Management gap analysis of key documents using the Transparency and freedom of information 56 analytical framework. Green indicates explicit mention of the theme in the document; yellow indicates that the document either partially Enforcement 56 includes the theme or that it is inferred; and red indicates that that theme is absent in the document. 42 Definitions 56 Table 7: Standardisation gap analysis of key documents using the Microplastics 57 analytical framework. Green indicates explicit mention of the theme in the document; yellow indicates that the document either partially Conclusion 57 includes the theme or that it is inferred; and red indicates that that theme is absent in the document. 46 References 58 Table 8: Microplastics gap analysis of key documents using the analytical framework. Green indicates explicit mention of the theme Appendix 1: Documents Analysed 59 in the document; yellow indicates that the document either partially includes the theme or that it is inferred; and red indicates that that theme is absent in the document. 50 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: EIA Pillars of Action for a Convention on Plastic Pollution (2020) 14 Figure 2: Zero Waste Hierarchy 31 Figure 3: Pillar 1 Monitoring and Reporting 56 4 Environmental Investigation Agency CONPLASTICveNTION POLLUTION ON PLASTIC Preve POLLUTIONNTION IN PACI fIC ISLANd countrIeS 5 Executive Summary Key recommendations Pacific Island countries (PICs) contribute less than 1.3 per Global Objectives cent of the mismanaged plastics in the world’s oceans yet are one of the main recipients of plastics pollution • Policy frameworks prioritising prevention over waste and its impacts. management. • Specific references to ‘plastic pollution prevention/ The costs of plastic pollution and climate-related elimination’ within relevant policy frameworks. impacts on these islands are massively disproportionate • Legislative mechanisms to address the to their contributions. Plastics entering the region are intergenerational sociocultural, economic, polluting the region’s life support systems and impacting environmental, climate change, and public health their Indigenous peoples’ cultural, economic and social impacts of plastic pollution. ties to the ocean. • Intergenerational equity to include gender and informal workers. While the transboundary flows of plastic waste through • Incorporation and implementation of regional and Pacific Ocean currents is distinctly recognisable and international obligations where possible (e.g. marine increasingly documented, this report significantly litter, toxic chemicals, climate change, and waste trade). widens the scope beyond marine-based litter to consider the impacts along the full lifecycle of plastics, from • Inter-ministerial integration and policy coherence extraction and production to the ongoing impacts on air, specific to plastic pollution. water and soil. Waste Prevention plastic pollution. This may, in part, be the result of a Traditional and local knowledge, values and alternatives Using a gap analysis, this study aims to identify the limited access to the latest science-based evidence to plastics are underutilised across the participating • Plastic pollution policy focused high up the waste current limitations in national plastic pollution policy for on plastic pollution as well as its interpretation. The countries. Expanding on pre-existing public-private hierarchy. partnerships across the Pacific region will also support preventing plastic pollution. It also explores the potential latest information on false solutions to the plastics • Importation and trade restrictions on problematic the prevention, reduction and repatriation or removal of to implement best practice for the reduction of plastic crisis, such as incineration technologies, bioplastics plastics and polymers (including single-use plastic pollution (e.g. for collection, sorting, sanitising, pollution and the promotion of a safe circular plastics and downcycling, is urgently needed if the region is to bioplastics). processing, takeback schemes and reverse logistics). economy. avoid the perverse outcomes that come with locking • Measurable and ambitious national reduction targets. investment into these responses. • Reduction, monitoring, and management plans for An analytical framework was developed using publicly The findings strongly suggest that in order to address virgin plastics. available online resources to examine national Cleaner Pacific 2025 illustrates that preventing these issues and prevent growing volumes of legislation, policies, strategies and plans relevant to plastic pollution will not be possible in the absence increasingly problematic types of plastics entering • Promotion of traditional/local alternatives. plastic pollution in each of the countries included. The of a comprehensive policy framework which fosters the Pacific region, a global agreement is urgently • Financial mechanisms to incentivise prevention. final framework consisted of five categories: Global sustainable consumption and production. The report needed. Only this can address the transboundary flow • National inter-ministerial plastic pollution elimination Objectives, Waste Prevention, Waste Management, corroborates these insights by underscoring the of marine litter, safe reusable and recyclable product committees. Microplastics and Standardisation. A total of 10 PICs importance of sustainable financing mechanisms, design and the global reduction