Cities push for a role in plastics treaty, citing EPR, health issues

Steve Toloken

La Crosse, Wis., Mayor Mitch Reynolds (center), speaking for a coalition of Mississippi River cities, told a plastics treaty side panel the agreement should include strong EPR and human health measures.

Local governments want a bigger role in the plastics treaty, saying they're bearing the cost of plastics in the environment and seeking stronger rules in areas like extended producer responsibility and protections for human health.

A coalition of local and subnational governments pressed its case at the plastics treaty talks in South Korea in late November 2024, including at a side event where one U.S. mayor said cities need more resources to manage plastic environmental pollution.

"One of the ways we can address that is through comprehensive EPR legislation or comprehensive EPR text in the treaty," said Mitch Reynolds, mayor of La Crosse, Wis., and co-chair of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative. "I think that is crucial. It can't be said enough."

Reynolds also said the coalition wants the treaty to address health impacts, pointing to challenges such microplastics pollution for the 20 million people who get their water from the Mississippi River as well as worries related to cancer rates for those who live along petrochemical production corridors.

"One of the most significant is the health impact of plastics," Reynolds said. "In Louisiana, in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, a lot of the petrochemical industry that provides input to plastics are in that area. We call it cancer alley, because the rates of cancer are so high there, because of the toxicity of the industry."

He spoke at a Nov. 26 side event at the talks in Busan, South Korea, that included representatives of a larger coalition that his group is part of, the Local and Subnational Governments Coalition to End Plastic Pollution.

That group formed at a previous treaty session in Canada, in April 2024. It advocates for the agreement to specifically recognize local governments as one of the main implementors of new laws and policies that come from the treaty.

A coalition representative from the government of Catalonia said she came to the talks in Busan hoping to raise the ambition of the treaty and push for reduction in plastic production.

"We believe that reducing plastics production and consumption is one of the keys of this whole process of the treaty," said Maria Rosés Giralt, policy officer for the Catalonian government.

Another panelist, from the Nigeria-based Community Action Against Plastic Waste, said the treaty needed to include transparency around chemicals of concern used in making plastic.

Executive Director Ahmed Tiyamiyu said the treaty should not give "blind exemptions" to sectors like medical plastics, and instead push for more sustainable use of plastic materials.

And he said the agreement should support frontline communities living near plastics factories and people who pick through plastics and other waste to extract recyclables to try to make a living.

The treaty will likely serve as a template for local governments that may not have the resources to develop their own policies for plastic pollution, he said.

"Many local and subnational governments frankly do not have policy and regulatory frameworks on addressing plastic pollution," he said. "When this global deal is agreed, it's going to inspire and be a reference for many … governments to take action."

Similarly, Reynolds, the Wisconsin mayor, predicted that business support for EPR will push states and Washington to move toward EPR and other measures to better address plastic waste.

In an interview after his comments on the panel, he pointed to Minnesota, on Wisconsin's border, passing an EPR law in 2024, as well as to Iowa's existing bottle bill, as differing regulations that companies must navigate.

Pressure is mounting for consumer brands, retailers and others who will be responsible for their packaging waste under EPR laws, to want a larger federal role in U.S. waste management, Reynolds said.

"Business will push Congress to move to some level of national EPR," he said. "We're probably never going to get to a level of California, nationally, but if we can get partially there, that would be great."

* Source : https://www.plasticsnews.com/public-policy/cities-say-epr-human-health-concerns-key-plastics-treaty