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By Jeff Young
Environment and Sustainability Editor
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Despite calls by nearly 100 countries to limit harmful plastic products and chemicals, United Nations negotiations on plastic waste ended Sunday in Busan, South Korea, without consensus on a global treaty.
UN officials said they will convene another round of talks in 2025 in an attempt to salvage efforts to rein in the plastic pollution that is killing marine wildlife, harming human health and warming the planet.
Representatives of several nations and groups involved in the treaty talks expressed disappointment and frustration at the outcome but resolved to build on progress that was made, saying that no deal is better than a bad deal.
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"We are not here to accept anything short of an ambitious treaty," Ghana's negotiator, Dr. Sam Adu-Kumi, said in a statement.
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Developing nations frequently bear a disproportionate burden of plastic pollution as waste is often exported from wealthier countries to places that lack the infrastructure for waste collection.
Some EU nations joined dozens of developing nations to form a "high-ambition coalition" pressing for a strong treaty. As the talks in South Korea approached the fifth and final day on Sunday, Rwanda's delegation presented a statement on behalf of 85 countries demanding a target to reduce plastic production and the elimination of harmful products and chemicals. Mexico's negotiators followed that with a pledge signed by 95 countries that they will not accept a treaty without binding global bans and phaseouts on harmful products.
Despite those demands by the majority of countries in the negotiations, observers said that a small number of petroleum-producing countries stymied progress and prevented key items from making it into the final text.
In a statement on behalf of the Arab Group of nations, Saudi Arabia said it would "reject any proposals that impose undue burden on industries" such as limits on plastic production.
"It's disheartening," Erin Simon, vice president and head of plastic waste and business at the environmental nonprofit World Wildlife Fund, told Newsweek via email. "Allowing a minority of actors to obstruct progress through the week predictably resulted in breaking the promise made at the beginning of these talks."
But Simon said the draft text that emerged from Busan "has some of the ingredients for success," and attention now turns to the next round of talks, which UN officials have yet to schedule.
"Countries must come to the table ready to fight for our future," she said.
As Newsweek reported last week, negotiators worked on a range of policy solutions including international financing to support waste collection, requirements for minimum recycled content in products and the global adoption of product designs to improve plastic recycling.
But environmental advocates and nations in the high-ambition coalition say it is still critical to cut the overall amount of plastic produced around the world.
"The reduction of plastic production must be a linchpin of the treaty to end plastic pollution if it's to be truly effective," Sarah Baulch, a senior officer at the Pew Charitable Trusts said via email.
A study published last month in the journal Science found that the world is on track to nearly double plastic waste by 2050. But a mix of just four policies, including a cap on plastic production at 2020 levels, could reduce that waste by 90 percent.
A cap on plastic production could also reduce air and water pollution in communities near plastics and petrochemical facilities as well as the greenhouse gas emissions from plastics.
The Science study found that without action, greenhouse gas emissions from plastics would increase 37 percent by 2050—roughly the same as the emissions that would come from 9,000 natural gas-fired power plants over a year.
However, a plastics industry group representative warned against supply restrictions, claiming that such provisions "could lead to greater environmental or economic harm" by raising prices for consumers and forcing companies to switch to more energy-intensive packaging materials. For example, industry groups argued, heavier glass containers require more energy to transport, thus increasing greenhouse gas emissions.
"It is crucial that this treaty stays focused on addressing the primary cause of plastic pollution—mismanaged waste," Chris Jahn, council secretary of the International Council of Chemical Associations, said in a statement.
The UN plastics treaty process started in 2022 and the failure to reach an agreement in Busan means the talks will extend into a third year while plastic waste continues to wash into the world's rivers and oceans.
"With over a garbage truck's worth of plastics entering the ocean each minute, every second counts in addressing the ocean plastic pollution crisis," Ocean Conservancy Vice President of Conservation, Ocean Plastics, Nicholas Mallos, said in a statement.
The next treaty talks will also take place with a new presidential administration in the U.S. Outgoing President Joe Biden's environmental officials had embraced a cap on plastic production, something incoming President Donald Trump is unlikely to keep.
Mallos predicted that while the federal government's position might change, many U.S. companies and states will remain committed to reducing plastic production.
"No matter what the U.S. does as a whole, individual states have and will continue to be the leaders on environmental policies, especially when it comes to tackling plastics," Mallos told Newsweek via email.
Simon at WWF had a similar perspective on negotiations under the Trump administration.
"While I can't begin to fully predict what will happen in the next administration, what I do know is that globally, we have a majority of countries, backed by civil society, hundreds of corporations and millions of individuals all calling for a binding treaty, and we know that momentum needs to continue," Simon said in her email.
On Wednesday evening, a Newsweek Horizons event will bring together business leaders, academic experts and environmental organizers for a panel discussion about the plastics treaty.
"The Future of Plastics: Reducing Waste and Rethinking Materials" will feature analysis of the talks and insights into how some companies and communities are developing solutions. You can join the 6 p.m. livestream audience by registering here.
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