Representatives from nearly 200 countries are meeting in Paris this week for the latest talks on a global treaty on plastic pollution. While not expected to produce a final agreement, the session could lay crucial groundwork for reducing the use of plastics worldwide.
Brokered by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the talks that began on Monday are the second round of five aimed at reaching a legally binding treaty by 2024, for adoption in 2025.
By the time they conclude on Friday, it is hoped that delegates from 175 countries will be closer to agreeing on an approach to cutting the amount of plastic waste accumulating in the world's oceans and ecosystems.
As it stands, parties are divided over a fundamental principle: whether to reduce plastic at source, by requiring the industry to slash production, or whether to focus on better managing and recycling plastic once it is thrown away.
To ban or not to ban?
Among the countries that favour the latter are China and the United States, two of the world's biggest producers of plastic.
Both countries have called for a global treaty that promotes recycling, while leaving any tougher measures – such as banning single-use plastics or hazardous chemicals used in manufacturing – up to individual nations.
But other countries argue that waste management alone does not go far enough.
Palau, as an island nation that does not produce plastic but imports goods swathed in it and sees yet more wash up on its shores, put it bluntly in its submission to the talks: "Turn it off at the tap".
It is among the countries arguing that a plastics treaty must include global restrictions on the full supply chain, aimed at bringing down the amount of new plastic in the world even before it turns into waste.
A coalition of 55 countries, including France and the rest of the European Union, wants to see a ban on unnecessary plastic, such as disposable cups and utensils, as well as restrictions on substances that go into plastic if they harm humans or the environment.
Circular economy
"Of course we have to recycle every bit of plastic we plan to throw away, but we can't get out of this situation through recycling alone," UNEP's executive director Inger Andersen told RFI.
She said a major rethink was necessary to shift away from plastic packaging towards reusable containers, though without calling for a ban.
UNEP has been criticised for placing too much emphasis on reuse and recycling, in what some see as a concession to the plastics and petrochemicals industries.
In a report released earlier this month, the agency called for a transition to a "circular" plastics economy, which would include reducing the amount of plastic produced but also designing new types of plastic that are easier to reuse or compost, as well as massively investing in recycling.
But environmental campaigners point out the limits of recycling, which is logistically difficult, energy intensive and risks exposing workers to toxic chemicals or even generating the microplastics that increasingly pollute our seas, air and food.
"If we don't impose any limits [on production], we will never reach a circular economy for plastics," environmental lawyer Tim Grabiel of the Environmental Investigation Agency, an NGO that campaigns to expose damaging practices, told RFI.
"With this volume of plastic put on the market each year, it is simply impossible to have the infrastructure necessary to collect and process it separately."
Paris Agreement precedent
Activists fear that without binding restrictions for all countries, the world's first plastic pollution treaty could run into the same obstacles as the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change.
That agreement allowed countries to set their own targets and timeframes for addressing the sources of global warming, and the results have so far been underwhelming.
When countries agreed to enter into negotiations last year, they accepted that it should be legally binding, stressed Andersen.
She said she was "absolutely convinced" that the negotiations in Paris, along with the three other rounds to follow, would result in a final agreement.
"It must be ambitious," she said.
"If we don't stop plastic pollution, if we continue to use it without recycling, there will be quite catastrophic consequences for our aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. So these negotiations are absolutely crucial."
