Presenting youth interests as nations gather for the final meeting on curbing global plastic pollution. For the past two years, nations have been working to craft a global treaty to tackle plastic pollution in this fast-tracked negotiation process due to end this week in Busan, South Korea at the conclusion of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution. For several years, plastic pollution was a major issue raised at the UN Environment Assembly.

But in March 2022, a historical resolution was adopted by the United Nations Environment Assembly: End plastic pollution; towards an international legally binding instrument. Recognising that the high and rapidly increasing levels of plastic pollution represent a serious environmental problem at a global scale, negatively impacting the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainable development. The UNEA mandated the director of the United Nations Environment Programme to convene an International Negotiating Committee (INC) to develop and adopt a legally binding instrument on plastic pollution based on a comprehensive approach addressing the full life cycle of plastic. Launching a landmark process towards a legally binding plastic treaty.

Since 1950, global plastic production has increased to like 460 million tonnes annually. Much of this has been driven by the rise of single-use plastic, which accounts for half of all production. But as production has rocketed, recycling has struggled to keep up; as of 2015, it had only dealt with 9% of all plastic waste ever produced. Thus, the INC has been tasked to pin down the elements a treaty could contain. These include measures to reduce plastic production; improve waste management; eliminate and/or minimise most polluting and avoidable plastic products with dangerous chemicals; design plastics for reuse; and finance cleanups and a global transition away from plastic. Next article