De
American Chemistry Council (ACC), een lobbyorganisatie van chemische bedrijven, waar ook oliemaatschappijen als Shell deel van uitmaken, is tegen nieuwe wereldwijde regels
om de stroom van plastic naar arme landen op het zuidelijk halfrond
te beperken….

Niet vreemd dus dat oliemaatschappijen
als Shell, Exxon en Total, plus een aantal grote chemische bedrijven waaronder Du Pont en Dow Chemical, die zijn aangesloten bij de ACC, de Coronacrisis hebben aangegrepen
om bij de, wat betreft milieu maatregelen totaal onverantwoorde, Trump
administratie te lobbyen tegen beperkingen die zijn opgelegd aan het
exporteren van afval plastic…..

Eén van
de landen die men wil gebruiken voor het onverantwoord dumpen van
gigantische hoeveelheden plastic is Kenya, waar al een enorme stroom
plastic uit de VS naartoe gaat……..

Als je
nu denkt dat genoemde bedrijven en anderen zich inzetten om de
productie van eenmalig te gebruiken plastic te verminderen, heb je
het helemaal mis, nee zelfs daar weigert men actie op te
ondernemen…..

Nogmaals
geven dit soort bedrijven aan dat ze lak hebben aan het redden van de
planeet zoals wij die kennen, nee: ‘Geld über alles….’

Vergeet niet dat Shell al een paar jaar bezig is om haar naam op valse gronden groen te wassen (greenwashing), terwijl de praktijk laat zien dat het bedrijf alles behalve duurzaam bezig is, of zelfs maar poogt echt duurzame doeleinden na te streven, zoals ook uit dit bericht weer blijkt……

Lees het
volgende artikel van Unearthed (onderdeel Greenpeace) over deze zaak
en zegt het voort, de hoogste tijd dat deze bedrijven tot de orde
worden geroepen (boycot Shell, Total en Exxon benzinestations!!), zeker als je ziet dat een aantal van die bedrijven
zoals Shell, zich zoals gezegd in het openbaar voordoen als duurzaam bedrijf dat
‘zich echt inzet om de klimaatverandering af te remmen en
vervuiling tegen te gaan…….’

Oil-backed
trade group is lobbying the Trump administration to push plastics
across Africa 

Thousands
of plastic bottles lay on the ground at the Dandora rubbish dump, an
eastern suburb of Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. Photo: Jan
Hetfleisch/Getty

The
American Chemistry Council also pushed back against new global rules
that will restrict the flow of plastic waste to the global south

A lobby
group representing oil and chemical companies, including Shell,
Exxon, Total, DuPont and Dow, has been pushing the Trump
administration during the pandemic to use a US-Kenya trade deal to
expand the plastic and chemical industry across Africa.

Documents
obtained by Unearthed
show the same lobby
group – and the US
recycling industry – also
lobbied against changes to an international agreement that puts new
limits on plastic waste entering low- and middle-income countries.

Several
of the companies in the American Chemistry Council (ACC) –
including
Shell, Exxon and Total but not BP –
were
the founders of a $1bn initiative that
pledges tocreate
“a world free of plastic waste”.

In
public letters to top officials at the US Trade Representative (USTR) and US
International Trade Commission (USITC), the ACC writes: “Kenya could serve
in the future as a hub for supplying U.S.-made chemicals and plastics
to other markets in Africa through this trade agreement.” 

The
letters also call for the lifting of limits on the waste trade, a
move which experts say amounts to an attempt to legally circumvent
the new rules on plastic waste, rules which – the
documents reveal – the
firms had also vigorously opposed. 

Kenyan
environmentalists said the proposals would mean that “Kenya will
become a dump site for plastic waste”.

US
Democratic Senator Tom Udall, who last year introduced legislation to
tackle the plastic waste crisis accused the companies of “double
dealing.” 

He
told Unearthed:
“It is outrageous that petrochemical and plastic industries claim
the solution to our mounting plastic waste crisis is to produce more
disposable plastic. These same companies and corporations then point
the fingerat
developing nations for the plastic waste showing up in our
oceans. This double-dealing makes clear what the true source of
our plastic waste crisis is: companies and corporations off-shoring
their responsibilities to make billions of dollars… Requiring these
companies to take responsibility for their excessive waste and
pollution is the only way we will tackle our colossal plastic waste
problem.”

Workers
sort recycling material at a waste management facility in Maryland.
US waste, including plastic, is often shipped overseas to poorer
countries. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty

The
ACC is a major trade association for chemical companies, includingDow
and DuPont, as well as the petrochemical arms of some of the oil
majors. Although BP is a member, it does not produce any plastics and
last month sold
offits
petrochemicals business to Ineos. A spokesperson told Unearthed
that
their work with the ACC focuses on Castrol lubricants, which are
used inthe
automotive industry. 

Basel Convention

Following
public outcry about plastic waste, in May last year, new rules agreed
under a global treaty called the Basel Convention mean
thatas
of 2021, almost all countries outside the OECD will be prohibited
from trading mixed, contaminated or unrecyclable plastic with the US,
because it is one of the few countries not party to the Convention. 

The
OECD has not yet ruled on whether it will accept the new plastic
waste rulings, following objections from the US. The Basel Convention
provides a limited exception which would allow continued trade
between the US and the 37 member countries of the OECD, but only if
those countries adopt standards on plastic waste as strong as those
in the Convention. 

The 187
countries that are part of the treaty will have to partake in a
procedure to obtain prior informed consent from importing countries,
a procedure which requires checks on environmental processing
facilities. 

Unpublished
documents obtained by Unearthed
under the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) show that the oil and chemical industry lobby group wrote
to the Secretariat of the Basel Convention in March 2019. 

It
objected to the new rules on the basis that they would create a
“regulatory burden”, lead to shipping delays, logistical issues
and increased costs. It forwarded its letter to the Office of the US
Trade Representative (USTR) two weeks later, requesting a meeting to
discuss its concerns. 

The
documents also reveal that the Institute of Scrap Recycling
Industries (ISRI) – a
major trade association representing the US recycling industry –
lobbied against the new rules on
the basis that they could severely limit US exports, discourage
legitimate trade and exacerbate marine litter by preventing plastic
from reaching recycling facilities.

“In
principle, we would prefer the proposals not be adopted and maintain
the status quo,” they wrote in an email sent to USTR on 3 April
2019.

A
spokesperson from the ACC told Unearthed
the basis of their
concerns regarding the new Basel restrictions was that they “could
very well limit the ability of African and other developing countries
to properly manage plastic waste,” because they will restrict their
capacity to export materials to other countries.

Academics,
civil society and politicians are concerned that Kenya – and other
African countries – do not have the infrastructure to manage
increasing plastic production and exports. Photo: Simon Maina/AFP via
Getty

ISRI
echoed these concerns. A spokesperson told Unearthed
that the new
restrictions “will prevent countries that lack materials management
infrastructure – such as for collection, sorting and recycling –
from sending what they can collect to countries that do have
recycling and disposal capacity… Without this outlet for developing
countries, ISRI worries that an already bad situation will become
much worse.”

According
to ISRI, in 2018 the US imported more than 92,000 metric tons of
plastic waste from non-OECD countries. 

However,
in
the first six months of that year,US
exports to China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam
alone – all
countries outside the OECD –
totalled
480,432 tons. These exports are five times the US imports in half the
time. 

The
Trump administration backed the industry position – opposing
the implementation of the new rules at the OECD. US opposition has
led to concerns over whether the country will seek ways around the
changes. 

Dr.
Innocent Nnorom, an associate professor in environmental chemistry at
Abia State university in Nigeria, who co-authored a
recent inventoryof
plastic consumption in Africa, told Unearthed:
“Most countries in Africa do not have the recycling infrastructure
for managing increasing plastic waste.

“It
appears that loopholes are being sought to continue the trade in
plastic waste. Once in Africa, the emerging free trade routes could
be used to facilitate transboundary movements to other African
countries. The African Union and its member states should be on the
look-out.”

Demand
for petrochemicals is expected
to rocket in coming decades, with companies expected to be
looking to low- and middle-income countries to expand the market.
Plastic is already the US’ biggest
export to Kenya, with sales totalling $58m in 2019.

In
their letters to the Trump administration regarding the US-Kenya FTA* earlier this year, the ACC called for it to “prohibit imposition of
domestic limits on production or consumption of chemicals and plastic
and restrictions on cross-boundary trade of materials and
feedstocks”. Feedstocks could include plastic waste for recycling.

They
added that the US and Kenya should “enable trade in waste for the
purposes of sound management and recycling consistent with relevant
international commitments”.

Even
so, David Azoulay, an attorney and director of the environmental
health programme at the Center for International Environmental Law
told Unearthed:
“The suggestion to use this potential agreement to preempt any
national limitation on plastic production and consumption is a clear
indication of the ACC’s objective to leverage such a trade
agreement to circumvent global efforts to curb plastic production and
use, as well as newly adopted provisions from the Basel Convention to
better control the global plastic waste trade.”

US
president Donald Trump shakes hands with Kenyan president Uhuru
Kenyatta during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office of the White
House in 2018. Photo: Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty

Jim
Puckett, executive director of the NGO Basel Action Network commented
that it would also contradict the Bamako Convention, a separate
treaty in Africa.

“The
effort to enlarge trade in waste and harmful chemicals in between the
US and Kenya is a rather insidious effort that, if taken across
Africa would go head to head against Africa’s Bamako Convention –
a treaty which prohibits virtually all plastic waste imports into
Africa as well as the import of many hazardous chemicals,” he told
Unearthed.

Kenya

Environmentalists
are concerned the deal could also undermine national efforts to limit
plastic consumption, including new rules on plastic bags. 

Sub-Saharan
Africa is thought to lead the world on plastic bag laws, according
to reports, with 34
countriesadopting
taxes or bans.

Dorothy
Otieno, the plastics programme co-ordinator at the Centre for
Environment, Justice and Development (CEJAD) in Kenya, told Unearthed
that this trade deal
could threaten the momentum and change created by these efforts. 

“As
a country we have made strides to reduce the plastics that are used
here, and which end up as waste – there is a ban on use and
manufacture of carrier bags and recently a ban on plastic in
protected areas – so this trade deal would diminish what we have
achieved as a country.” 

But
Kenyan politicians and trade groups said such fears will be
addressed. Negotiations began several
weeks ago, but have
recently stalled due to coronavirus concerns.

Cornelly
Serum, an MP for the ruling Jubilee Party and member of the Trade and
Industry Parliamentary Committee, told Unearthed:
“Fears that under the trade deal use of plastics might be
reintroduced into the country are valid… Trade associations
planning to expand their businesses in Africa – and mainly in Kenya
– are welcome but cannot use the deal to introduce materials that
have so far been banned and as a parliament we will not allow any
protocols likely to ruin our economy.”

Carol
Karuga, CEO of broad-based lobby group the Kenya Private Sector
Alliance, added: “It does not augur well to ban use of plastics
materials in the economy and later reintroduce the same through a
trade deal… The deal before it is finally agreed will have to be
checked at all levels.”

Otieno
also expressed concerns about the impact of more waste. “There
would be an increase in waste – some will be reused and recycled
but the majority will end up in dump sites. We will end up in a
situation where Kenya will become a dump site for plastic waste,”
she said.

“It
clogs our waterways and our drainage systems and leads to flooding.
We also see the effect of pollution from the burning of plastics –
it produces dioxins and furans that lead to respiratory diseases…
Somebody can burn these wastes right next to your house and suffer
the impacts. We also see the aesthetic value of our towns being
reduced because of plastics.”

Last
year, some of the ACC companies – including Shell, Exxon and BASF –
alongside major consumer goods and waste management companies
launched the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), committing $1bn,
in part to finance
waste management projectsto
clean up and prevent plastic waste in Africa and Asia. 

In the
public letters, the ACC wrote that: “There is a global need to
support infrastructure development to collect, sort, recycle, and
process used plastics, particularly in developing countries such as
Kenya. 

“Such
infrastructure will create opportunities for trade and investment and
help keep used plastics out of the environment, thereby reducing
marine litter… The U.S. and Kenya can play a strong role together
in promoting innovative circular economy solutions in East Africa
that enable universal access to better waste management capacity and
for used plastics in all countries.”

Voor de
rest van het artikel, zie het origineel.

* FTA: Free Trade Agreement, ofwel vrijhandelsverdrag.

Zie ook:

‘Microplastics doden ons lichaam, tijd voor actie!!‘

‘Microplastics ongevaarlijk aldus TNO en kunststofverwerkende industrie……‘

‘Alarmerende hoeveelheid microplastics gevonden in het lichaam van kinderen‘

‘Shell en Exxon lobbyen voor het behoud van eenmalige plasticverpakkingen‘