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According to data provided in a report by the World Economic Forum’s Global Plastic Action Partnership, in which Ecuador participates, the country generated 627,000 tons of plastic waste in 2022.
Of this, 40% is mismanaged: 113,000 tons ends up in landfills, 100,000 tons is burned in the open air, 24,000 tons ends up as land contamination, and 16,000 tons ends up in water bodies.
The same report states that if no remedial action is taken, Plastic waste By 2040, Ecuador’s waste will exceed 1 billion tons, of which nearly 470,000 tons will end up scattered in ecosystems, incinerated or in landfills.
Ecuador has enacted legislation to reduce single-use plastics
this Organisational approach to rationalisation, reuse and reduction of single-use plasticsEffective December 21, 2021, it is planned to gradually eliminate the use of single-use plastics and replace them with plastics containing a certain proportion of recycled materials during the manufacturing process.
The regulation sets certain deadlines: for example, plastic carrier bags must use 50% post-consumer recycled content in their manufacturing within a year and a half of the law coming into force; 55% in the third year and 60% in the fourth year. Biodegradable bags are used in large supermarket chains but not on the general market.
In addition, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (Maate) must draw up a National Plan for the Reduction of Plastic Waste within 90 days of the publication of the legal text in the official register.
1,197 days have passed since that deadline expired.
Andrea Lema, an expert on plastic pollution and global coordinator of grassroots recycler support at the Global Alliance for Incineration Alternatives, explained that in order to apply the regulatory aspects of the law, it was necessary for authorities to prepare the document.
“Some deadlines have passed but have not been met. There is no mechanism to monitor their compliance,” he noted.
EL UNIVERSO consulted with Matte on the preparation of the National Plastic Waste Reduction Plan, but did not receive a response until this information was released. According to Lema, Matte is preparing the text of the plan.
Lema added that it is currently impossible to verify whether producers comply with the percentage of recycled material in plastic shipping bags.
However, experts added that some private companies have taken initiatives to produce plastic using recycled percentages, but they are not regulated.
Lema said that since there is no way to control it, a sanctions regime involving fines cannot be applied.
The law aims to regulate plastic packaging labeling
Another aspect the law seeks to regulate is the labeling of plastic containers. Article 16 states that “every plastic product intended for consumption shall be packaged with a label suggesting how it may be reused.”
After a quick analysis of products in this category, recycling labels commonly found on snack bags only include the global recycling symbol (three arrows), if available.
Sometimes there’s a number in the middle of those three arrows. The label is called the resin identification code, and it indicates what the plastic is made of. However, the arrow symbol might lead the average consumer to think it’s either or not recyclable, but that’s not always the case. For example, 5 means polypropylene is used. “Whether in the U.S. or Europe, 94 percent of the material is not recycled, and in Ecuador it’s even worse,” Lema says.
For Fernanda Solíz, environmentalist and waste expert, director of the health field at the Simon Bolivar Andean University, the law “is a clear example of how deplorable the policies negotiated with the plastics industry are, which have resulted in a text that is cold and inapplicable to those situations that allow for anomalies, such as the cross-border trade in plastic waste.”
He explained that imports of plastic waste had increased because the industry believed the country did not have enough supply of recycled plastic to meet the law’s demands.
“(The plastics industry) set deadlines, percentages and formulas, and despite that, they’re not following them,” Soliz said.
Ecuador’s emissions of climate-changing gases increased by 7.2% from 2021 to 2022
The expert proposes not only a “complete” ban on plastics, but also on single-use materials, as she argues that the industry is replacing plastics with “allegedly” biodegradable materials that still generate waste. He explains that although they are made from biomass, their production requires the use of agricultural land (and therefore agrochemicals), water and electrical energy, resulting in a significant ecological footprint.
“The material ends up mixed with other materials in open dumps. It’s not that they have a specific composting process, far from it,” Soliz said, adding that grassroots recyclers need to work in better conditions to “carry out their work with dignity,” such as access to green collection centres and fair prices for what they collect.
He continued, saying that if the material needs of the recycling movement were not taken into account, the amount of waste recycled would remain low. (I)
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