Researchers call for ban on toxic chemicals in plastics

Researchers are calling for a substantial reduction in the number of chemicals used in plastics manufacturing, and a complete ban of chemicals known to be detrimental to both human health and the environment – in a new paper published by Cambridge University Press in Cambridge Prisms: Plastics. 

Plastics pollution is a major threat to human wellbeing and planetary health. While plastics recycling is often presented as the answer to plastics pollution, the presence of toxic chemicals in plastics, which enter plastics at various stages of the manufacturing process intentionally and otherwise, means that this is not a viable solution. 

Addressing the plastics pollution crisis 

To address the plastics pollution crisis, the safety and sustainability of plastics manufacturing must be improved. Policymakers need to make changes to global, regional, and national policies to reduce the toxicity present in the plastics life cycle and address chemicals at each stage of manufacturing.  

The researchers identified five policy strategies to support a transition to safer, more sustainable plastics:  

1. Improving reporting, transparency and traceability of chemicals in plastics throughout their full life cycle

2. Advocating for chemical simplification and group-based approaches to regulating hazardous chemicals 

3. Implementing chemical monitoring, testing and quality control 

4. Creating economic incentives that follow the waste hierarchy 

5. Generating support for a just transition to protect people, including waste pickers, impacted throughout the plastics life cycle 

Lead author Bethanie Carney Almroth, of the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and the Centre for Future chemical Risk Assessment and Management at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, said: “To date, most policy negotiations have focused on the downstream aspects of the plastics lifecycle – how to reuse and recycle plastics, for example. However, before recycling of plastics can be considered a safe practice, the flaws in today’s plastics manufacturing systems must be addressed.” 

Plastics contain a vast range of chemicals, including monomers, polymers, processing agents, fillers, antioxidants, plasticizers, pigments, microbiocides and stabilisers – and plastics production has already reached levels that threaten the stability of the Earth’s functions. Moreover, the amounts and types of chemicals in plastics products varies, and there are few requirements for transparency and reporting. 

“We need a compulsory, globally standardised mandate that ensures transparent reporting regarding the chemicals used in plastics, to facilitate a safer and more sustainable reuse, refill, repurpose and recycling market,” said Carney Almroth. 

Reducing cross-contamination 

Carney Almoth and her colleagues also highlighted the risk of chemicals used for a specific purpose in one sector – such as flame retardants in electronics – contaminating plastic streams in other sectors, like toys or food packaging.  

Anthropologist Tridibesh Dey of Wagningen University, Netherlands, a co-author of the paper, drew attention to the far-reaching consequences of everyday chemical exposure from plastics – both product and waste. He stressed, “A key to a safe and effective circular economy of plastics is the regulation of chemicals within the plastic lifecycle.” Having apprenticed with plastic waste pickers and recyclers in India for over a year, Dr. Dey highlighted the multi-generational health and socio-economic burdens borne by these vulnerable populations who handle the cumulative load of multiple plastic-associated chemicals. However, he added, “even before plastic products become waste, they can leach, off-gas, and emit potentially-toxic chemicals, exposing unsuspecting consumers – including children, elders, pregnant women, people with disabilities. Fenceline communities are also exposed to effluents from plastic production, often with disastrous consequences”. 

Therese Karlsson, from the International Pollutants Elimination Network added:  

“Our research makes clear that human societies cannot rely on recycling alone to end the plastics pollution crisis. Currently, we need improvements upstream, midstream and downstream in the plastics life cycle. We also need to prioritise bans of chemicals known to be detrimental to both human health and the environment. The consequences of plastics pollution on human and planetary health allows no other option.”