GAIA blames Western corporations for Asian waste pollution in new report

30 Jan 2023 --- The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) Asia Pacific conducted a waste assessment and brand audit (WABA), claiming that Western plastic corporations are responsible for waste pollution in Asian countries.

For years, brand audit reports have shown that consumer brands based in the Global North have been overproducing single-use plastics and flooding Asian markets with disposable, throwaway packaging, at the expense of citizens and local governments who end up footing the bill and enduring the long-lasting environmental health effects associated with plastic pollution, according to GAIA. 

“We, at the Global South, have carried the weight and responsibility of waste for too long while our reality and the community solutions we have developed are ignored,” says Froilan Grate, GAIA Asia Pacific coordinator. 

Who is to blame?
As part of International Zero Waste Month 2023, organizations such as GAIA and Ocean Conservancy held a media briefing event, shedding light on the narrative impact of the GAIA network’s brand audits. 

Ocean Conservancy published a report in 2015 that blamed Asian countries as the main drivers of plastic pollution in the ocean and positioned incineration as a solution to the plastic crisis. It retracted the report in July 2022, recognizing the harm it caused by holding developing nations accountable for the pollution and failing to identify its root causes. 

Brand audit members assert that the waste crisis cannot be solved without reducing the production of single-use plastic.“An analysis of 35 years of data from Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup showed that nearly 70% of the most commonly found items polluting beaches and waterways are effectively unrecyclable. It will take many solutions to tackle this problem, but we absolutely must start by cutting back on single-use plastics,” Nicholas Mallos, vice president of ocean plastics at Ocean Conservancy, tells PackagingInsights. 

Reducing plastic production 
Since Ocean Conservancy retracted the report, the two organizations have been engaging in a restorative justice process to acknowledge and address the report’s errors and join forces to expose false solutions and drive accountability among plastics producers. 

“This brand audit with GAIA, Mother Earth Foundation, Ecowaste Coalition and Ocean Conservancy shows the commitment to work toward reducing waste, moving away from false solutions, acknowledging the work happening on the ground, and most importantly, restoring justice where it was previously overlooked,” says Grate.

“We cannot solve the plastic pollution crisis without reducing virgin plastic production, especially single-use plastics,” adds Nicholas Mallos, Ocean Conservancy’s vice president of Ocean Plastics. “This has to be our first priority. We look forward to working together by leveraging each of our organizations’ strengths to eliminate plastic pollution.” 

Exposing pollution causes 
Von Hernandez, global coordinator of the #breakfreefromplastic movement, asserts that for years, “the public has been conditioned to believe that the problem of plastic pollution, now manifesting in the unprecedented, pernicious and wide-ranging contamination of all life on the planet, was caused by their undisciplined ways and the failure of governments to institute and implement proper waste management systems.”

He continues by saying that the organizations’ brand audits have now exposed “the real causes” of the plastic pollution crisis. These are “mainly due to the irresponsible and predatory practice by corporations of saturating our societies with single-use plastics of all kinds with no consideration about how they can be managed in an environmentally safe and benign manner.” Through a restorative justice process, brand audit members aim at identifying the real causes behind waste pollution in Asia.

In addition, Ecowaste Coalition campaigner Coleen Salamat says that, “The real issue is the export of waste and waste-to-energy (WtE) incineration technologies to developing countries.” 

“In the Philippines and the rest of Asia, we are faced with truckloads of waste that we have no means of handling. From products packed in sachets to WtE incineration projects and waste colonialism has sadly become a norm.” 

Restorative justice
Grate highlights that it is never too late to turn things around. Communities around the world are discovering the power of zero waste solutions. “Through the restorative justice process, we will continue to expose the truth of the waste crisis and it will be more than just a wake-up call to FMCGs and purveyors of false narratives, but cold water splashed over their faces.”

“The Zero Waste solutions that we have and have been doing all these years will be enough for our lawmakers to rethink their policies to turn the tide against waste and the climate crisis.” 

Mallos says that reducing single-use plastic means looking at alternative delivery models, such as reuse and refill systems, redesigning products and more. “I have been so encouraged over the past two days at the International Zero Waste Conference to see many examples of innovation in action. The solutions are out there and working,” he concludes. 

By Natalie Schwertheim