{"id":318923,"date":"2025-08-05T04:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T04:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/318923\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T04:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T04:44:10","slug":"can-countries-solve-the-plastic-pollution-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/318923\/","title":{"rendered":"Can countries solve the plastic pollution problem?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In 2022, countries agreed a global treaty was needed in two years to tackle the issue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">That deadline passed in December 2024, after five rounds of negotiations, with no treaty having been signed. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">On Tuesday, more than 170 nations will meet again to try to get a deal over the line.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The main issues they are trying to get agreement on include:<\/p>\n<ul role=\"list\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Targets on cutting the production levels of single-use plastics<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Bans on some of the most harmful chemicals in plastic<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Universal guidance on the design of plastic products <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Financing of this effort<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Products that have to meet consistent design standards can help to improve recycling, save costs and reduce the demand for virgin plastics, Rob Opsomer, executive lead of plastics and finance at the Ellen McArthur Foundation, which co-convenes the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty, told the BBC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;So, to give you one example, a drinks bottle, if it is coloured, the value of what you can get from it if you sell the recycled material is half the value of a clear, uncoloured bottle,&#8221; he explained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Nearly 100 countries, including the UK, are calling for an &#8220;ambitious&#8221; treaty which would include a commitment to limit production levels. But there has been strong opposition from a group of oil-producing nations including Russia and Saudi Arabia who want the talks to focus not on producing less, but recycling more. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Demand for oil in global energy and transport systems is expected to peak in the next few years as countries move to greener technologies. This could leave plastic as one of the few growth markets for the oil industry. Any efforts to limit production could pose short term economic damage to the petrostates.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But for those users of plastics not having clear, global regulations is costing them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It is a fundamental risk. Businesses don&#8217;t want packaging with their brand name on it to be littering the streets and our oceans,&#8221; said Mr Opsomer. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He said there was also the cost for businesses of having to comply with hundreds of new standards globally every year on plastics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Business Coalition, which includes some of the biggest global users of plastic such as Nestle and Unilever, is calling for governments to introduce coordinated taxes on their businesses to help pay for the cost of recycling and cleaning up plastic waste.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2022, countries agreed a global treaty was needed in two years to tackle the issue. That deadline&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-318923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114974337473469264","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}