From the challenge of doing plastic-free business in the Amazon to global negotiations on oceans and the climate, local stories illustrate the complexity of the topic subtly addressed at COP30

Written by Alice Martins Morais. Reviewed by Carla Fischer

Translation: Roberto Cataldo/Verso Tradutores

Tekohá – Divulgação. Here

Dona Nena – suggestions here (Agência Pará).

Inger Andersen – Márcio Nagano (11/13)

Marinez Scherer – Marx Vasconcelos (11/18)

While plastic pollution is off the formal agenda of COP30 negotiations, it is present in the Amazon’s everyday life. In rivers, forests, and the daily life of cities, there is evidence of contamination in fish, birds, sediments, plants, and even in the water consumed by traditional populations. Despite the seriousness of the scenario, getting rid of plastic remains a difficult task, especially for those trying to do business in the region.

Danielle Amaral, a food engineer and the founder of local vegan makeup brand Tekohá, experienced it firsthand. When she created the company in 2023, her guiding principle was to develop plastic-free products and packaging, but she faced difficulties due to high prices, expensive logistics, and scarce suppliers. “From a consumer’s perspective, I always thought it was hypocritical for a brand to claim to be sustainable and use plastic, but when I switched to the business side, I saw that it was easy to judge, but the change was hard to implement,” she says.

After securing funding through a government grant, she was able to assemble the first batch of products using only kraft paper boxes, which are more resistant and durable. However, this choice came at a high cost: according to her, packaging accounts for 43.75% of the total cost of each item. “If they were plastic, they’d cost about 5% of that,” she reports.

A slight number of her products still use plastic packaging because of health requirements. For her, especially in the Amazon, public policies such as tax incentives are needed to raise awareness among entrepreneurs and reduce costs in the input market. “We need to make an effort not to pass on so much of the costs to end prices, but we understand that our product is more expensive than that of a large industry, because it adds value. We have work that involves the communities and won’t leave plastic pollution in the environment, and we want to keep it like this,” she continues.

Mário Carvalho is the manager of Filha do Combu, a company that makes chocolates and Brazilian truffle “brigadeiro” using native Amazonian cocoa. He emphasizes that his packaging includes very little plastic today. Cocoa bars are wrapped in dried cocoa leaves themselves. Like Amaral, he says that the biggest challenge is still finding suppliers that guarantee ecological, resistant materials suitable for the humid Amazon climate. “The search continues. Our goal is to keep reducing the use of plastic as much as possible without compromising the preservation of the chocolate. We are even thinking about alternatives such as adhesive paper tapes or some type of sealing that uses less plastic, but it still has to be tested, especially because of the need for a suitable glue and its resistance to moisture,” he explains.

Plastic already affects ecosystems and the global climate

Faced with these challenges, cases like Amaral’s and Carvalho’s end up being a minority in the market. With a poorly structured recycling chain around the world and few circular economy policies, the result is that the equivalent of a garbage truck full of plastic ends up in the ocean every minute.

Even in regions far from the Amazon coastal area, a plastic package that falls into the rivers can be carried by the hydrographic basin – which functions as a huge river highway that carries waste thrown in cities to the rivers and possibly to the sea. The reverse is also true: plastics that reach the ocean may return to the rivers.

A study conducted by Fiocruz Amazônia and the Mamirauá Institute with 52 research projects compiled scientific evidence that riverside and indigenous communities are among the most vulnerable groups. They are exposed daily to garbage that accumulates due to an in adequate collection infrastructure and the growing presence of non-organic waste in people’s daily lives.

These local stories reflect a rapidly worsening global crisis. From the extraction of fossil fuels used to manufacture plastic through the emissions released throughout the life cycle to the degradation of the oceans that regulate the climate, production and inadequate disposal of plastics fuel global warming and put pressure on essential ecosystems.

UNEP executive director Inger Andersen points out that discussing plastic is discussing the climate. She recalls that the Global Treaty Against Plastic Pollution, under negotiation for two years, is a crucial part of the response to the crisis. Plastic, produced mostly from fossil fuels, generates emissions at all stages and increases the risks of floods, soil contamination, and diseases. “Not a single member state has abandoned the negotiations,” she says, pointing out that the treaty must keep advancing, despite the many disagreements between countries.

For her, it is important to address plastic pollution at the climate conference because it is directly related to adaptation, for example. “Plastic pollution is usually found in the poorest neighborhoods. And when there’s heavy rain, what happens? These poor neighborhoods are often in flood-prone areas. And that’s a global phenomenon. There is plastic in sewage, in garbage, everywhere,” she stresses.

Blue Package launched at COP30

According to COP30’s Special Envoy for the Ocean Marinez Scherer, plastic pollution has been addressed transversally in the Conference’s thematic agenda, through the Ocean Breakthroughs Dashboard, a tool to monitor progress in ocean care that started operating on Monday (17). “One of the topics of the tool is conservation. If we want to conserve mangroves, coral reefs and other ecosystems, we need to combat plastic pollution,” she emphasizes.

The Blue Package was launched at COP30 as a plan to accelerate solutions related to the ocean and coastal zone, indicating how to protect and restore the ocean so that it can continue to be the main ally in the fight against climate change. The oceans cover more than 70% of the planet’s surface and play an essential role in balancing global climate because they absorb about a quarter of CO2 emissions and more than 90% of the additional heat retained in the atmosphere as a result of human action, working as a climate regulator, according to WWF Brazil. 

Marinez Scherer explains that this package plans to use scientifically proven methods on topics such as fleet decarbonization, renewable energies in the ocean, ecosystem restoration and conservation, sustainable aquaculture and fishing, and sustainable tourism. “Thus we can think about truly moving away from our dependence on oil and gas towards other energy sources, including new and traditional common ones,” she adds.

If the actions are implemented, they could help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by up to 35% by 2050 – more than a third of what is needed to keep global warming to 1.5°C – according to Marinez, a biologist and a professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC). She emphasizes that this plan is a portfolio to overcome the global climate crisis, but in order to be effective, it needs to attract funding. “We estimate that it will take between 130 and 170 billion dollars by 2030 to put all the actions outlined there into practice. These are 27 comprehensive actions offering 70 solutions. So, we need to attract investment,” she says.

However, only 17 countries have committed to incorporating the ocean into their updated climate plans so far: Brazil, France, Australia, Fiji, Kenya, Mexico, Palau, Seychelles, Chile, Madagascar, United Kingdom, Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, Indonesia, Portugal, and Singapore.

This report was produced by Amazônia Vox through the Collaborative Socio-environmental Coverage of COP 30. Read the original report at: https://www.amazoniavox.com/noticias/view/534/o_desafio_de_pequenos_empreendedores_de_belem_de_se_afastar_do_plastico