In November 2024, governments will come together in Busan, Republic of Korea, for the fifth and last round of negotiations for a global treaty to end plastic pollution. This treaty is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a global solution to this worsening global crisis. Unless governments agree on an ambitious and fair treaty with legally binding global rules, plastic pollution is likely to triple by 2040, accumulating in our food and water and exacerbating the risk of flooding. 

To solve this crisis, all countries must adopt a treaty that will ban avoidable high risk plastic items - those that cause the most harm or are most prone to leaking into the environment.

Plastic production and consumption is out of control. We are being force-fed more plastic than we need and in a way that makes it impossible to responsibly manage. To this point, plastic producers have operated with little accountability and regulation. The absence of global rules and responsibility have left people and the planet to pay the price. And we are now facing an accelerating threat that transcends borders and puts everyone in harm's way.

To end the plastic crisis, the UN plastic pollution treaty must introduce new global binding rules to regulate production and consumption. These rules must include measures to ban, phase-out, phase-down, circulate and manage high-risk plastic products. 

As a priority, the treaty we need to ban the most harmful and avoidable plastic products. Over 90% of the plastic that pollutes our planet is made up of single-use plastics, such as plastic cutlery, and microplastics, such as those added to cosmetic products. Most of which is too difficult or dangerous to recycle. So, while plastic production continues to skyrocket, asking people to just recycle is simply not good enough. To make plastic pollution history, we need to ban the highest polluting,most harmful and avoidable plastic products and materials, and support all nations as they shift to safe, circular systems.