Third World approaches to the international law: warnings and the urgency to face the plastic soup

Abstract

The problem of the plastic pollution in the oceans, also known as the plastic soup, is becoming more and more evident. Although there is still much to learn about the plastic pollution sources, destinations and consequences to nature and human life, recent studies demonstrated that the developing world may be responsible for transporting up to 95% of the global load of plastic coming from rivers into the sea. One of those studies indicates that of the 10 rivers that most contribute, 8 are located in Asia and 2 in Africa. This paper defends that such data should come as an alert to the upcoming decisions that will hopefully come in the near future to face the plastic soup. In what concerns international problems, the challenges are always huge, mainly when related to the global commons. Among those challenges, the North-South dynamics s a certainty. A previous work from Gonçalves and Faure already demonstrated some possible paths towards international law solutions. This paper shows that regardless of the path chosen, it should consider some aspects of the North-South dynamics from start. The aim is to enumerate considerations that could prevent tensions in such a dynamics. In order to do so, the paper begins with a description of the plastic soup problem, mainly source-related, and follows with a third world approach to international law (TWAIL), to conclude with the aimed considerations