GLOBAL DEFINITION FOR NON-PLASTIC SUBSTITUTES

The current definition of plastic in the Zero Draft of the Treaty is vague and insufficient. It states that "Plastics means a solid material which contains as an essential ingredient one or more high-molecular-mass polymers and which is formed (shaped) during either manufacture of the polymer or the fabrication into a finished product by heat and/or pressure. Plastics have material properties ranging from hard and brittle to soft and elastic." (UNEP/PP/INC.1/6 p.4). 

However, this definition does not exclude natural materials that also contain polymer molecules. This could lead to confusion and false claims, and needs to be refined. The NPG proposes that natural, not chemically modified polymer materials be defined as non-plastic substitutes in section 3. Definitions of the treaty. 

• Natural polymers are understood as polymers which are the result of a polymerisation process that has taken place in nature, independently of the extraction process with which they have been extracted.
• Not chemically modified substance means a substance whose chemical structure remains unchanged, even if it has undergone a chemical process or treatment, or a physical mineralogical transformation, for instance to remove impurities.

This proposal is consistent with the EU Single-Use Plastic Directive which was introduced in 2021.