On July 11, 2024, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted decision 56/117, requesting its Advisory Committee to prepare a study on the implications of plastic pollution for the full enjoyment of human rights. The HRC also requested the Advisory Committee to seek the views of and inputs from relevant stakeholders when preparing the study.
Following a call for public input in May 2026, the Food Packaging Forum (FPF) provided inputs to the study with a focus on the latest scientific evidence for plastic food contact materials (FCMs).
The input period ended on May 15, 2026. The study is to be presented to the UN HRC at its sixty-sixth session, which is still to be scheduled, likely at the end of 2027.
Plastic FCMs can have negative impacts on human rights throughout the plastics lifecycle
The available scientific evidence shows that people are exposed to hazardous chemicals at all stages of the lifecycle of plastic FCMs, including before and during plastic production, while plastic FCMs are in use, and when plastic waste is managed. These occupational, consumer, and community exposures to hazardous chemicals impact the rights to health and to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
Most plastics are not inert materials, meaning that the chemicals they contain can move out of the material and into the surrounding environment (including into food). Many chemicals related to plastic FCMs have been detected in humans (FPF reported). These include known hazardous chemicals such as bisphenols, phthalates and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), as well as substances that may cause other non-communicable diseases such as mammary cancer (FPF reported). Children and pregnant women are particularly sensitive to these chemical exposures.
Globally coordinated upstream interventions are needed to protect human rights from plastic pollution
Although there are different measures at the international and national level to address plastic pollution, they are fragmented and largely target issues downstream, such as improving waste management, often relying heavily on recycling as the solution.
Considering the available peer-reviewed scientific evidence, FPF explained in its input the value of globally harmonized upstream approaches, which can include:
- implementing precautionary/preventative approaches
- making health and human rights explicit objectives in control measures
- stronger regulatory frameworks addressing the entire plastic lifecycle
- reducing plastic production
- implementing the “essential use” concept (FPF reported)
- eliminating the intended use of known hazardous chemicals from FCMs and other sensitive applications; for example, by implementing hazard-based restrictions and phase-outs of chemical groups of concern
- requiring higher standards for inertness of FCMs, which can support reducing chemical migration, simplifying information requirements for chemical risk assessment, and improving suitability for reuse and therefore compatibility with a circular economy
- improving transparency on chemical contents of plastics (including FCMs); these include on both intentionally used substances and known non-intentionally added substances (NIAS)
- improving safety testing of plastic FCMs and their alternatives and substitutes
- including independent scientists in the decision-making process
References
OHCHR (March 12, 2026) “Call for inputs for the study of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee on the implications of plastic pollution for the full enjoyment of human rights.”
Food Packaging Forum (May 15, 2026) “Questionnaire on implications of plastic pollution for the full enjoyment of human rights.”
