海洋微塑料污染防治法律问题初探

Legislation Issues on Marine Pollution of Microplastics

海洋原生微塑料污染是近年环境污染的新类型和新问题。目前美国、加拿大、英国、新西兰、法国和欧盟等已或正在通过立法或政策方式禁止部分含有塑料微珠的个人清洁用品的生产和销售等,但主要针对的是去角质产品中添加的塑料微珠,并未对所有化妆品中的塑料微珠采取有效措施,上述措施受到了来自行业和其他因素的重重阻碍。现有国家立法和政策措施属于海洋微塑料污染防治的初级手段,如何通过立法全面治理海洋微塑料污染问题应是法学者未来研究的重要课题。由于立法前提不足、治理、预防和控制机制不明、制裁对象和否定性评价机制难以构建以及国际合作建立的困难等问题,现阶段针对海洋微塑料污染全面立法时机尚未成熟。但不可否认,通过法律防控微塑料污染是必然之路,建议加强国际合作;关注微塑料污染致害机理的进展逐步推进立法工作;在强调政府基于公共信托责任、生产者责任延伸制的基础上,关注消费者行为和参与;尝试形成类似《关于消耗臭氧层物质的蒙特利尔协议书》的机制,并综合考量公约后阶段可行性问题。

Marine Pollution of Microplastics is a new subject of environmental pollution. Up to now, United States, Canada, England, New Zealand, France and European Union are set to ban environmentally damaging plastic microbeads in personal care products, especially exfoliating microbeads. Those measures are preliminary and under challenged by cosmetics industry and other groups. How to prevent and control marine pollution caused by microplastics should be the primary task for scholars in the near future. Legislation on marine pollution caused by microplastics is not mature now. The reasons of this conclusion include the lack of legislation premise, the unknown of governance, control and prevention mechanism, the difficulty of identifying the object of sanctions and negative evaluation and international cooperation. However, the legislation of marine pollution caused by microplastics is the evitable road. Therefore, for the primary stage, it＇s wise to call for international cooperation, gradually promote legislative work based on the scientific research results, emphasize government responsibility under public trust rule, producer responsibility under EPR and focus on consumer behaviors, follow with and learn from the mechanism built by The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer to prevent and control marine pollution caused by microplastics.