Date: March 27, 2024
To: The Honorable Joseph R. Biden, President of the United States
Re: Global Plastics Treaty Negotiations
Dear President Biden,
On behalf of the 150 undersigned organizations representing hundreds of thousands of Americans across the U.S., we are calling on you to translate your environmental justice and climate change pledges at home into international action at the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations currently underway. We are fast approaching the fourth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) for a legally binding Global Plastics Treaty (GPT) in Ottawa, Canada (April 23-29, 2024), a critical moment in the global effort to tackle the triple planetary threat that plastics pose to public health, biodiversity, and the climate.
After participating in all of the INCs to date and in meetings with numerous federal agencies for the last several years, we are very concerned that the U.S. State Department is failing to take a leadership role in these negotiations and actually standing in the way of the treaty the world needs. Plastics are not merely the hazardous and toxic material waste damaging marine and terrestrial environments. Plastic pollution is also represented in toxic chemical emissions released into the air and discharged into the water of communities living on the frontlines of extraction, refining, and manufacturing facilities. We are concerned that the State Department has been unsupportive of the types of binding and ambitious mandates commensurate with the scope of the crisis we face. State Department officials negotiating the treaty have ignored invitations to visit frontline communities and witness the lived experience of those directly impacted by toxic plastic production. The U.S. increasingly seems to be positioning itself alongside a handful of countries seeking to undermine a new international law in order to secure the twin interests of the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries responsible for the plastic pollution crisis.
The Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Toxic Substances Control Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and other bedrock environmental laws provide the U.S. with robust authority to protect the public from the harms of plastics and enact a just transition from our current single-use economy to one based on reuse. Our good faith efforts to inform the State Department how it can fulfill its duty to protect people and the environment from harm throughout the plastic lifecycle have been consistently rejected. It is evident that this response stems from an unwillingness to prioritize public interest over private profits rather than a true lack of authority. The protections we seek represent a core function of government and are fully supported by Resolution 5/14, agreed upon by 175 member states of the United Nations Environmental Assembly, including the U.S.
It is critical at this moment that we do not aim for a lowest common denominator treaty under the guise of creating a “big tent” and collecting the greatest number of signatories. An international treaty of this importance is not the place to perpetuate and entrench voluntary half-measures and false solutions that Big Oil and Big Plastic are counting on and pushing with the help of petrostates.
What’s needed in this international forum is the same level of commitment made in your January 27, 2021 Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, and your April 21, 2023 Executive Order on Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All. These commitments, bolstered by scientific rigor and ambition that center communities already overburdened with pollution from the fossil fuel and petrochemical industry, represent the bold action needed to address the plastic pollution crisis. As partners with the U.S. State Department in the INC negotiations, we feel compelled to draw your attention to the ways the agency’s position on plastic pollution undermines your otherwise laudable efforts to advance climate and environmental justice in the U.S. Absent your intervention, State’s current position will lead to an even greater burden on communities from Appalachia to the Gulf, and increased alienation among the millions of Americans who fought to put your administration in the White House.
We are particularly concerned that the State Department is promoting a “circular economy of plastics” with a focus on product design rather than production caps. Plastics are toxic from production to transport, use, and disposal. To safeguard our communities, air quality, water quality, health, climate, and biodiversity now and for future generations, anything less than a truly ambitious, legally binding treaty that tackles plastic pollution across the lifecycle will be an abject failure. Plastics will never be safe for human health or the environment and we cannot recycle our way out of the plastic pollution crisis.
The precautionary principle the U.S. applied in the Montreal Protocol negotiations must be applied to the public health and economic risks posed by plastics, including micro- and nanoplastics. Rather than a threat, American companies should see it as an opportunity to minimize the many risks of plastics to their investors and an opportunity for market leadership in reusable, non-plastic, and non-toxic substitutes, similar to the innovations for sustainable fire extinguishers and refrigerants when the Montreal Protocol and Kigali amendment went into force. To this end, we ask that you direct the State Department to negotiate a legally binding, ambitious treaty that will:
- Support a treaty Scope that covers the full lifecycle of plastics beginning with fossil fuel extraction including production of plastic precursors and feedstocks;
- Apply the precautionary principle, supporting significant production caps on plastic monomers and polymers, phase-downs, and phase-outs with binding timelines to prevent plastic pollution from poisoning communities and the planet across its lifecycle;
- Support a group-based, health-protective approach to restricting chemicals of concern in plastics, accounting for toxics formed in the manufacturing process;
- Support just transition measures that include the upstream petrochemical production supply chain in the U.S. and protect the health and human rights of communities of color and low-income communities most impacted by the plastics lifecycle;
- Support safe and environmentally sound waste management, in harmony with the mandate of the Basel Convention. Reject false solutions like plastic circularity, waste-to-fuel, mass balance allocation, plastic credit schemes, and chemical recycling in all its forms. Chemical recycling is an unreliable and polluting marketing scheme promoted by plastics and chemical companies as an alternative to actually reducing plastic production;
- Support binding provisions that will invest the future Conference of the Parties with the authority to ensure all member states remain committed to compliance with the obligations, reporting requirements, capacity building, and transparency;
- Support rules of procedure that allow for voting if consensus cannot be reached in order to prohibit a small number of petrostates from thwarting a strong, meaningful treaty;
- Support non-party trade provisions to close trade loopholes, ensure the treaty’s effectiveness, and ensure all countries have a level playing field.
An overwhelming majority of Americans care about this issue. The U.S. cannot afford to continue aligning itself with industry and low-ambition petrostates who ignore public health and human rights violations while maintaining a position that will only increase plastic pollution and exacerbate the climate crisis.
We ask that you direct the U.S. negotiating team to take the above-outlined positions at INC-4, and respectfully request that you meet with key leaders of the environmental movement to discuss this once-in-a-generation opportunity your Administration has to effectively end plastic pollution and embody your values of protecting public health, tackling climate change, and upholding environmental justice.
Signed,
198 methods
350.org
7 Directions of Service
7th Generation Advisors
A Community Voice
Air Alliance Houston
Alaska Community Action on Toxics
Animals Are Sentient Beings Inc
Ban SUP (Single Use Plastic)
Bayou City Waterkeeper
Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community (BCMAC)
Better Brazoria
Between the Waters
Beyond Extreme Energy
Beyond Plastics
Black Appalachian Coalition
Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
Break Free From Plastics
Breathe Free Detroit
Breathe Project
Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas
Center for Biological Diversity
Center for Coalfield Justice
Center for International Environmental Law
Central California Environmental Justice Network
Cherokee Concerned Citizens
Chippewa Valley Group
Church Women United in New York State
Clean Water Fund
Climate Action Campaign at Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
Climate Reality Project
Coalition for Environment, Equity, and Resilience
Concerned Citizens of Lake Charles
Concerned Citizens of St. John
Concerned Health Professionals of Pennsylvania
Cosmic Poetry Sanctuary
Defend Our Health
Deignan Institute for Earth and Spirit at Iona University
Don't Waste Arizona
Downwinders at Risk
Earth Action, Inc.
Earth Guardians
Earth Path Sanctuary
EARTHDAY.ORG
Earthworks
East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice
Eco-Cycle
Elders Climate Action
Endangered Species Coalition
Environmental Justice Communities Against Plastics (EJCAP)
Extinction Rebellion
Fenceline Watch
FoCo Trash Mob
Food & Water Watch
FracTracker Alliance
FreshWater Accountability Project
Fridays for Future
Friends of the Earth US
Gary Liss & Associates
Gas Free Seneca
Group Against Smog & Pollution (GASP)
Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA)
Greater New Orleans Interfaith Climate Coalition
GreenLatinos
Greenpeace USA
Healthy Ocean Coalition
Hip Hop Caucus
Inclusive Louisiana
Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition
Indivisible
International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute
Just Transition Alliance
Just Zero
Justice For Formosa's Victims
Kentucky Resources Council, Inc.
Keystone Trails Association
Kickapoo Peace Circle
Louisiana Just Recovery Network
Louisiana League of Conscious Voters
Media Alliance
Mi Familia Vota
Micah Six Eight Mission
Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action
Milwaukee Riverkeeper
Moms Clean Air Force
Moore Institute for Plastic Pollution Research
Mountain Watershed Association
New Energy Economy
New Mexico Climate Justice
Nicaragua Center for Community Action
NJPIRG Students
North American Climate, Conservation and Environment (NACCE)
Occidental Arts and Ecology Center
Oceanic Global
Ohio Valley Allies
Oil and Gas Action Network
Only One
Pacific Environment
Peace Action WI
Pennsylvania Interfaith Power & Light
People Over Petro Coalition
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Pittsburghers Against Single Use Plastics
Plastic Free Future
Plastic Pollution Coalition
Plastic Solutions Fund
Port Arthur Community Action Network
Presente.org
Preserve Monroe, WV
Project Outreach: Frac Sand Sentinel
Putnam Progressives
Putting Down Roots
Recycle Hawaii
Recycle Ann Arbor
Resource Renewal Institute
Rio Grande International Study Center (RGISC)
Rise Up West Virginia
River Valley Organizing
Rockland Coalition to End the New Jim Crow Environmental Committee
Safer States
Santa Cruz Climate Action Network
Save Our Susquehanna
Seneca Lake Guardian
Sequoia ForestKeeper
Sierra Club
Society of Native Nations
Stand.earth
Sunflower Alliance
Surfrider Foundation
Texas Campaign for the Environment
Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (TEJAS)
The Center for Oceanic Awareness, Research, and Education (COARE)
The Descendants Project
The Enviro Show
The Last Beach Cleanup
The Natural History Museum
The Plastic Solutions Fund
The Post-landfill Action Network
The Quantum Institute
The Story of Stuff Project
Turtle Island Restoration Network
Twin Harbors Waterkeeper
Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community
Unite North Metro Denver
Uranium Watch
Valley Watch, Inc
Vote Climate
Wall of Women
Waterkeeper Alliance
Wonderfil, PBC
Cc:
The Honorable Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States
The Honorable Anthony Blinken, Secretary, U.S. Department of State
Michael Regan, Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency
Jennifer Granholm, Secretary, Department of Energy
Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor
Brenda Mallory, Chair, Council on Environmental Quality
John Podesta, Senior Advisor for Clean Energy Innovation, and Implementation