Ed Cook

@tennesstralia @Cyclical_invest Not quite - about 1.7 million tonnes of plastic collected for recycling in the global north is exported for recycling in the global south. Our modelling suggests that, approximately 300,000 tonnes ends up in the environment .

Plastic pollution is virtually not happening in the West But we are suing oil companies for it... nature.com/articles/s4158…

@Cyclical_invest Macroplastic emissions take place in the Global South, but #PlasticPollution is a global challenge which we all, have to take responsibility for. #PlasticsTreaty

@SDGscameroon I think we agree - d’you think you can take down the inaccurate and misleading post about me please?

@edrcook Uncollected waste is a problem, but big polluters must take responsibility

We reject the European study blaming the Global South for plastic pollution. This ignores the plastic industry’s role and waste colonialism. Let’s hold the Global North accountable and #BeatPlasticPollution together! 💪 #EndWasteColonialism #GlobalJustice breakfreefromplastic.org/2024/09/06/eur…

@SDGscameroon We fully agree that we should address the root causes of plastic pollution and reduce damaging exports @SDGscameroon. But to be clear, waste exports represent a very small amount of waste in comparison to uncollected waste which is most of the problem.

@edrcook We must address the root of plastic pollution. The Global North should stop exporting waste and support local recycling efforts in the Global South. Together, we can create a sustainable, circular economy for all! #WasteColonialism #BeatPlasticPollution #CircularEconomy

@AzulDotOrg @UniversityLeeds @NatureComms @brkfreeplastic @apover Hello @AzulDotOrg - Our study does not blame anyone as you will see. We are explicit about what is include and what is not and have clearly explained any limitations in our study. We invite you to discuss the findings and offer us a right of reply. doi.org/10.1038/s41586…

‼️ Study by @UniversityLeeds and published by @NatureComms, blames Global South for plastic pollution, completely overlooking the role of plastics industry and waste trade from high-pollution nations 👉 breakfreefromplastic.org/2024/09/06/eur… @brkfreeplastic @APover

@ByNewsIndia Hi there - sorry our study doesn't say that - we do not report on consumption - India has the second highest plastic waste generation in the world, China has the highest. India has the highest macroplastic emissions. Please correct. Best wishes doi.org/10.1038/s41586…

Plastic Pollution: India is the country with the highest consumption of plastic in the world. As a result, the problem of plastic pollution has become very serious. #AirPollution #PlasticPollution #PlasticPollutionInIndia #Pollution #TopStories bynewsindia.com/india/plastic-…

@cimidyue Hello @cimidyue - We would urge you to engage in constructive dialogue. If you take some time to read our paper you will see that we have not blamed anyone. doi.org/10.1038/s41586… - let us know if you have any questions.

Study by European University blames Global South for plastic pollution, overlooks the role of plastic industry and waste trade | Break Free From Plastic breakfreefromplastic.org/2024/09/06/eur…

Hello @scarabtrust - I see that you have posted negative content about our paper whilst blocking comments and preventing a right of reply - You can see in our paper doi.org/10.1038/s41586…, we have not attributed blame as you suggest.

Hello @scarabtrust . We did not deliberately exclude upstream, our model simply doesn't look at it. We're explicit about what's included & urge others to investigate other sub-systems. doi.org/10.1038/s41586… x.com/scarabtrust/st…

@therese_my Dunno - last two top-down global models we worked on included MPs - P2O (Lau et al) & OECD plastics outlook - both good but because they tried to incorporate a lot, they have low resolution and accuracy - we use bottom up - more detail, tighter scope, focus on main mass loads. .

@edrcook So its because it would be too challenging to account for microplastics as well?

A recent paper on plastic emissions assumes that waste trade is negligible, because it only looks at one category of plastic waste trade. apnews.com/article/plasti… I have thoughts. (Spoiler: that assumption and the underlying data is inaccurate)

@therese_my Nothing to do with that - this is an MSW model using bottom up data - it is a tremendous effort to make something like this - we have worked on most of the big models - we wanted this one to be more accurate and include more processes so the scope had to be limited somehow.

@edrcook Thanks for clarifying! Did you exclude microplastics also because of the complexity? it seems that the full mass of MSW volumes would be more comparable if included, especially since some sectors emit large volumes of microplastics (e.g. recycling) sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

@therese_my Yes open burning is counted as an emission - meaning the material mass that is burned, not the emissions from the burning - there is a whole section later about where we got the data from

@edrcook while we are discussing I also have another question out of curiosity. Section S2 deals withs scope, but doesnt go into detail on the open burning so do I understand it correctly that you count the full volume that is burnt as "emitted"?

@therese_my It is reasonable yes - agree is unethical - we don’t support waste exports at all, - @CostasVelis broke this story years ago with his report about China - still on Greenpeace website.

@edrcook it may not be exports that cause it but HIC often send wastes to countries that are already struggling w.their waste management. Which is unethical & has shown to affect local capacity, so I think its reasonable to consider that it might be contributing. sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

@therese_my We didn’t exclude for those reasons - it’s because the model is municipal scale & export data are national - we would have had to ‘allocate’ mass exported to municipalities but we don’t know where it goes - as the mass is small we left it out to avoid more error.

@therese_my Take a look at SI. 2 paragraphs which explain our rationale. Of 1.7 Mt which we estimate to move from GN to GS, we think 0.3 Mt is ‘emitted’, meaning beyond human controlled systems. Maybe underestimated but even if 3 times as much, it’s small compared to 52Mt emitted worldwide.

@therese_my Good point - some is industrial but my experience of materials marketing tells me that much is MSW - in our scope it would make it less.

@edrcook Especially given that we seem to agree that waste trade is complex. Plus you base this on HS3915, which are often scrap and waste from industry processes but the scope of your article is MSW which is spread over many different HS codes so they dont seem comparable?

@therese_my But you have missed the peak @therese_my - since 2017, the trade has reduced substantially, first because of the Chinese import ban, then becasue of the Basel Convention changes and associated reductions in the EU.

@edrcook I think its great that there are emerging rules on waste trade! But we often see how its rebranded & I would be careful to draw such hard conclusions from one HS code. Between 2004-2023 overall eu waste trade to non-eu countries increased by 72% environment.ec.europa.eu/news/new-regul…

@therese_my Thanks @therese_my - I think we can all agree with this comment. Best wishes and I hope we can try to have a constructive dialogue.

It is clear that the amounts of plastics that are produced today are unmanageable. We need controls on plastic production volumes, elimination of toxic chemicals and increased transparency and traceability throughout the full life cycle.

@therese_my Yup these are all important and thanks for highlighting - we focussed on the main constituents of municipal solid waste. Our previous work with the OECD plastics outlook included all those other categories - interestingly the emissions were less! That's modelling.

4. the paper also doesn't include upstream emissions during production, conversion & use phases & they've excluded important sources such as textiles, construction, electrical and electronics and sea-based sources. Excluding all that data is bound to give a skewed image.

@therese_my There is connection , but its not about exports. China radically changed its waste policies in years preceding the 2018 import ban. They invested heavily in incineration & waste collection. Imported plastic mass was only ever 8 Mt - not much in context of 250-500 Mt generated

3. It seems like an interesting coincidence that the countries that are identified as main polluters are also frequently identified as main receivers of plastic wastes from high income countries and that Chinas emissions decreased shortly after banning plastic waste import.🤔