Countries divided over global treaty on 'worsening plastic crisis'

Talks on a legally binding plastics treaty are under way in Paris – with it being described as a “once in a generation opportunity” to tackle a “worsening” crisis amid fears of countries’ aims being too far apart ahead of a fast-approaching deadline.

Campaigners have ramped up pressure on the government to push for an ambitious outcome from the United Nations negotiations on a Global Plastic Treaty, with them beaming a message on the Houses of Parliament last week saying: “Now is the time to act.”

Humanity churns out more than 430 million tons of plastic a year, two-thirds of which are short-lived products that soon become waste, polluting the ocean and sometimes even infiltrating the human food chain, the United Nations Environment Programme said in April.

Plastic waste is expected to almost triple by 2060, with under a fifth recycled, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The UK is the second largest plastic polluter per capita, after the US, according to a 2020 study, and progress on promised return schemes to incentivise drink bottle recycling has stalled.

However, a ban on some single-use plastic items, like plates, trays, bowls, cutlery will kick in from October.

Anna Diski, plastics campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said the UK government “talks a good game” on tackling the plastics crisis, and there are “few better chances to live those words than through the Global Plastics Treaty”.

But to do that, Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey has to “actually back a position, which rises to the challenge facing us globally and ends the age of plastic”, she said.

Greenpeace UK, which projected the messages in Westminster last week, said an ambitious agreement would not just end pollution but reduce virgin plastic production too, creating a global re-use system instead.

It said plastics that are only used once should be the main target, especially pernicious, hard-to-recycle items like sachets.

The treaty “offers a once in a generation opportunity to take real, effective action against the worsening plastics crisis”, Greenpeace said.

But there is little agreement yet on what the outcome from this second of five negotiating rounds should be, and industry defends the role of plastic in everyday lives, including medical equipment.

At the first meeting, held six months ago in Uruguay, some countries pressed for global mandates, some for national solutions and others for both.

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The negotiations are due to finish by the end of 2024 – an extremely tight timeframe for such international treaty negotiations, requiring almost 200 countries to agree on shared goals.

The limited timeline means it is critical that countries agree during this second round of talks on the objectives and scope of the pact, experts say, such as what kind of plastics it will focus on.

Some countries, led by Norway and Rwanda, want limits on production and restriction on some of the chemicals used in plastics.

The so-called “high ambition coalition” wants an international, legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution by 2040.

The United States, China and Saudi Arabia are among those that want a more limited scope to address waste and scale up recycling, a plan that would likely appeal to oil and gas exporters, with most plastic made from fossil fuels.

The US delegation in Uruguay said national plans would allow governments to prioritize the most important sources and types of plastic pollution.

Many plastics and chemical companies want this approach, too, with a plastic waste treaty that prioritizes recycling.

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The International Council of Chemical Associations, the World Plastics Council, the American Chemistry Council and other companies that make, use and recycle plastics say they want an agreement that eliminates plastic pollution while “retaining the societal benefits of plastics.”

Calling themselves the “global partners for plastics circularity”, they say modern plastic materials are used around the world to create essential and often life-saving products, many of which are critical to a lower-carbon, more sustainable future.

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