UN environment assembly
TOMRA and the Global Plastics Treaty
Alongside a strong coalition of businesses and NGOs, TOMRA has been active in promoting an ambitious Global Plastics Treaty with clear targets and harmonized regulation across UN countries. Our hopes were that the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee would finalize and adopt an agreement at the end of INC-5.2 in Geneva in August, but unfortunately, no agreement was reached.
In March 2022, all UN member states unanimously agreed to develop a legally binding international treaty to address plastic pollution, aiming to tackle the full life cycle of plastic, from design and production, through consumption to disposal. The treaty envisions a shift towards a circular economy for plastics, keeping them in use and out of the environment. This is highly aligned with TOMRA’s overall vision to lead the resource revolution by transforming how we obtain, use and reuse the planet’s resources to enable a world without waste. An ambitious, legally binding Global Plastics Treaty has the potential to:
- Facilitate investments into plastic recycling capabilities and infrastructure – such as sorting – from public and private investors and through bilateral financial support.
- Promote effective Extended Producer Responsibility for products containing plastics, where producers cover the cost for the end-of-life treatment for the goods they place on the market.
- Drive requirements on product design, ensuring that it is practically possible to reuse or recycle plastic products put on the market through effective reuse, recycling and waste management systems.
While all countries agree that plastic pollution is a substantial challenge for the world’s societies, human health, nature and wildlife, there have been major disagreements on the scope and stringency of the treaty, with some nations highlighting the economic, technical and political complexities of an ambitious, binding agreement. The alternative view, promoted by a majority of the nations, civil society and large parts of the business community including TOMRA, emphasizes the importance of common standards, targets and harmonized regulation across countries as key elements for an effective treaty to tackle plastic pollution. With the aim of reaching consensus, the negotiations came to a halt at INC-5.2, after several rounds, without a clear path forward.
Since the summer of 2022, TOMRA has been actively promoting an ambitious treaty, leveraging our 50 years of experience with circular value chains through local regulation and industry partnerships across the globe.
We have fostered close partnerships with the organizations working to promote the treaty, such as WBCSD, Reloop, Eunomia, RETORNA, ISWA, AEPW, CEFLEX, and its members. Today, we co-chair The Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty (BCGPT) together with Nestlé, Pepsi, Unilever and Walmart, with the support of more than 300 members.
We have been present at all INCs, and taken the opportunity to address the importance of a Global Plastics Treaty at a number of adjacent events, including at New York Climate Week in September 2024 and at the Sustainability Reception hosted by King Charles at Buckingham Palace in November 2024.
TOMRA has also shared unique industry insight into effective measures to tackle plastic pollution through white papers and policy recommendations such as “TOMRA’s 10 recommendations for the UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution,” the BCGPT’s in Treaty on a Page, and the UK Department for Environmental Food & Rural Affairs open letter ahead of INC-5.2.
Finally, TOMRA has promoted an ambitious treaty in meetings, conversations and interviews across the world over the past three years.
So, given that no agreement was reached in Geneva, what was it all for?
First of all, no agreement is a better outcome of the INC-5.2 than a watered-down consensus agreement that would slow down the debate about plastic pollution but bring about little actual change. Second, the camp of high ambition nations, now counting more than 120 of the 193 member states, has been – and is still – growing steadily. Third, understanding of the severity and complexity of the situation among the countries has matured significantly over the past years. Everything we need to collectively solve the challenge is on the table. Now it is just about landing the treaty. Still, significant progress towards that end requires that a number of controversial topics are tackled, including plastic production and phase-out of problematic and avoidable plastic, determining the COP processes that will facilitate the implementation, monitoring and strengthening of the treaty over time (voting vs consensus), and a proposed financing mechanism (incl. financial support to developing countries).
Ahead of these challenging discussions, TOMRA remains committed to the goal of an effective, ambitious Global Plastics Treaty, and in the meantime, we will work to promote circularity, aiding regulators, businesses and societies across the globe in their efforts to accelerate change.
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