Question

1) What are the economic incentives for a nation to cut plastic use if the plastic ends up in international waters/other countries?

2) Without international organizations such as the UNEP having the authority to dictate international plastic restrictions, how do we get countries (often with competing national interests) to work together to fight this problem?

Answer 1

1) Environmentalists and economist alike have warned about the possibility of deep issues if serious consideration is not given to limit the use of plastic and to cut output as much as economically feasible for the country.

The key downside to a plastic based economy is that it ends up being in seas which are all interconnected and one person’s actions hampers not only his but overall economic activity also.

The level of pollution rising leads to grievous problems in the economy and reduced demand for goods and services. Plastic enters marine life which is consumed by people and their overall productivity would decrease as a result of lesser life spans and greater health related issues.

Further over the years, countries have started imposing heavy taxation on those countries which use plastic so as to ensure sustainable development in the country.

Thus, we can conclude by saying that since environmental degradation effects human life and their productivity and the fact that taxation is now rapidly followed as a policy to reduce the amount of environmental degradation are factors which favour a government to use reduced levels of plastic

2)  

The core idea to help fight the problem is by exerting economic pressure on countries that do not enable plastic reduction measures. Even without the existence of international organizations, we can reduce the plastic by imposing strict restrictions on countries that do not restrict its use. These retrospective measures help countries that have an edge in getting countries that still rely on plastic to better on the environmental aspects of economics as well.

Please feel free to ask your doubts in the comments section if any.