A major global treaty on plastic production is in the works. Why is it important for the Middle East?

Growing up, my family often visited the crystal-clear beaches of Matrouh, a pristine Egyptian city near the Libyan border. After several years away, I was excited to return home this summer and show my husband the place I had so often raved about. But to my dismay, the Mediterranean shore I remembered was gone. Brand-name chip bags and empty soda bottles floated around us, while transparent bags clung to our arms and legs. We were swimming in plastic.

Plastic pollution is affecting marine ecosystems, tourism, livelihoods, and human health worldwide. It also impacts climate change and accelerates biodiversity loss. To address this crisis, countries are gathering in Busan, South Korea from November 25 to December 1 in the fifth and final session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC-5). While previous INC sessions saw some Middle East and North Africa (MENA) states pushing to finalize the legally binding global treaty to tackle the problem, other countries were blocking negotiations.

The Plastic Problem

The MENA region has the highest per capita plastic footprint, whereby more than 6 kg of plastic waste per resident is dumped into the ocean annually, according to the World Bank. However, most MENA countries are not big plastic producers, yet bear the burden of plastic pollution.

“It is important that MENA countries play an active role in INC-5 because they heavily suffer from plastic pollution,” Farah al-Hattab, the Lead Plastics Campaigner at Greenpeace MENA, told Raseef22.

With its coastlines and rich marine ecosystems including the Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf, and the Mediterranean, as well as landmark rivers, the region is particularly threatened by plastic pollution. In addition to affecting income from tourism, the region also houses coastal communities who are most impacted due to their proximity to the sea, as well as the dependence of their livelihood on fishing and other maritime activities.

Plastic also poses risks to human health at every stage of its lifecycle, be it through exposure to the plastic particles themselves or the associated chemicals. Research suggests that humans ingest between 0.1 to 5 grams of microplastics weekly, sounding the alarm for endocrine disorders, cardiovascular problems, and reproductive issues. Microplastics have been detected in multiple countries in the MENA region, with studies showing that the fish consumed daily contain significant amounts of microplastics and, in some cases macroplastics, in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, the UAE, and Oman.

Handling plastic waste is expensive, many countries in North Africa and the Levant resort to burning waste which releases dangerous chemicals, and recycling has not been working, explained Mohammed Kamal, co-director of Greenish and an expert in Solid Waste Management and Plastic Pollution. While some countries have better waste management systems than others, only 9% of plastics worldwide are recycled.

Mismanagement of waste and the inability of waste management facilities to appropriately deal with plastic waste results in poor disposal approaches that lead to extreme forms of pollution and harm to human health, Kamal told Raseef22. Most plastic accumulates in landfills, water canals, and the marine ecosystem.

Environmental and climate issues have only recently become a priority to MENA governments. After hosting the United Nations Climate Change Conferences, climate awareness grew in the public consciousness.

MENA’s Role in Previous INC Sessions

Two sources who attended all previous INC sessions and were familiar with the negotiations spoke to Raseef22, on the condition of anonymity, about the varying stances of MENA countries.

Tunisia and Morocco have been setting examples of ambitious countries, they stated. In the last session, Tunisia called for reduction in plastic production, as well as taxation measures for the polluting industry. Egypt, a major plastic producer in the region, has been negotiating in good faith. While Cairo has been refusing to negotiate restricting production measures on polymers, which encompass plastics, it has been readily discussing a reduction in plastic products, and the life-cycle of plastics.

An Arab country, and a leading country amidst the African states, Egypt is diplomatically situated to bring countries together and has a critical role to try and bring consensus on varying positions. “At the same time, if Egypt doesn’t deal with the negotiations properly, and over prioritizes certain positions, it can do damage to the process,” one of the sources told Raseef22.

Meanwhile, GCC countries, like the UAE, have been giving mixed signals, as “they were part of the High Ambition Coalition, but they haven’t been showing much ambition,” an expert stated.

Saudi Arabia has actively impeded on negotiations to protect its interests as a major oil producing country in the region. Reducing plastic production would affect its fossil dependent economy, especially considering the fact that they are investing to grow their petrochemical and plastic industry.

Algeria “might not be negotiating in good faith, as it has planned to invest huge funds in its oil and gas and petrochemical industries,” one source said. Under Algeria’s plans to invest $50bn in oil and gas projects over the next four years, 71% of the funds will be devoted to exploration and production, and 18% will be invested in petrochemicals projects.

On the other hand, Iraq’s tone changed during INC-4, reflecting a more positive stance on a strong treaty.

The North/South Divide

“If there is one thing all Arab countries agree on, it is the financial mechanism and the need for a dedicated fund specifically for this plastic treaty,” Kamal said. “We believe that polluting companies should be held accountable and pay for the pollution caused by their products.”

“When we talk about a common but differentiated responsibility, we cannot ask a country to immediately cancel its petrochemical industry without the slightest form of a just transition that would compensate its economic losses and industry workers,” said Kamal.

For example, a company in Saudi established in the 1980s cannot be compared to one from the US that opened up in the 1840s, since the discovery of polymers, with more than 120 years of difference in operational time and economic gains, Kamal explained.

“This needs to be a balanced discussion. You cannot tell a country to just eliminate its petrochemical industry, even if we want to transition and phase out fossil fuels, when there is no path for just transition or compensation, and when the North is not willing to even provide a dedicated fund,” Kamal continued.

Less than 60 multinational companies from the Global North, on top of which are Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Unilever, and PepsiCo, are responsible for more than half of the world’s plastic pollution, with six responsible for a quarter of that, according to a 2024 study.

Furthermore, for many years, waste, including plastic waste, has been “exported” from the Global North to countries in the Global South. One stark example which recently caused an uproar is Europe dumping waste in Morocco, which amounted to almost one million tonnes in 2022. In August, the Moroccan government decided to allow the further import of over 2.5 million tons of waste.

“If there is one thing all Arab countries agree on, it is the financial mechanism and the need for a dedicated fund specifically for this plastic treaty,” Kamal said. “We believe that polluting companies should be held accountable and pay for the pollution caused by their products.”

A Plastic Treaty on the Horizon

In response to what would constitute a good treaty, al-Hattab stressed on cutting plastic production, ending single-use plastic, and addressing the full lifecycle of plastics, from extraction to production to end-of-life.

Environmental organizations and activists are calling for a treaty that would set a legally binding target to reduce plastic production by at least 75% by 2040, in order for the planet to stay below 1.5° C. The treaty should also ensure that countries are working toward a just and inclusive transition into low-carbon, zero-waste, and reuse-based economies. The treaty should be rooted in a human rights-based approach that prioritizes human health, protects the environment, and centers justice and the interests of communities most affected.

“Plastic pollution is a solvable problem that we can really end amidst all the current slow and weak environmental and climate multilateral processes, and invasive capitalist structures that overproduce unnecessary goods,” Kamal believes.

As for the treaty’s financial mechanism, “polluters and wealthy countries should pay. We don’t expect poorer countries to pay the price for the transition.” Strong financial mechanisms are essential, and should come from money provided by the Global North, and private sector fees on polymer producers and packaging producers through Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policies, according to al-Hattab. The payment should also include essential non-financial resources, such as capacity-building and technology transfer.

Environmental organizations and activists are calling for a treaty that would set a legally binding target to reduce plastic production by at least 75% by 2040, in order for the planet to stay below 1.5° C. The treaty should also ensure that countries are working toward a just and inclusive transition into low-carbon, zero-waste, and reuse-based economies. The treaty should be rooted in a human rights-based approach that prioritizes human health, protects the environment, and centers justice and the interests of communities most affected.

“Most MENA countries are developing countries which can greatly benefit from a fair financial mechanism under the treaty that enables them to end their reliance on plastics, in addition to mitigating plastic pollution,” she said. “The chaos that surrounds an incoming Trump administration creates an opportunity for other member states to step up, be the adult in the room, and put human and planetary health before short-term profits for a dying industry.”