On one side, poorer 'politically unimportant' nations, many with little manufacturing, demanding caps on plastic production and curbs on toxic chemicals. On the other, the oil states and petrochemical giants such as Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, South Korea and the US whose profits are plastics.
That’s not a negotiation; that’s an attempted mugging in broad daylight, and the mugger has the lawyers, the lobbyists, and the money. We shouldn’t be surprised it failed, it was always going to. Asking oil-rich nations to sign away their own profit streams is like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas. Instead, they offered the usual distraction: “Don’t worry about production, let’s talk about recycling.”
Meanwhile, global plastic output exceeds 470 million tonnes a year - of which approx. 428 million tonnes end up incinerated, landfilled, dumped, or leaked into the environment. Of the 9% allegedly recycled, much is “downcycled” into lower-grade products (hardly circular) -
So while poorer countries choke on the waste, richer oil states bank the cash and the “solution” is to have another round of talks, sometime, somewhere, maybe, yawn.
Unless there’s a mechanism that actually costs the petrochemical powers money when they keep the tap open, this treaty will be talked to death and while we wait, plastic will keep pouring into rivers, oceans, food chains, lungs, and bloodstreams.
This isn’t a treaty on plastics. It’s a treaty on power and until we call it that, we’re kidding ourselves. Flying thousands of delegates around the globe to “negotiate” an outcome that was never politically possible is theatre, not progress. Reappraisal is overdue because as long as we keep pretending these talks are about plastics, the real crisis; production, waste, health, climate, keeps accelerating, unchecked. Who makes plastic - link - plastic recycling - link - more like this (treaty) - link
The Global Plastic Treaty – Geneva - August 2025 - 2,600+ delegates - 183 countries - 10 days of useless negotiations - the outcome - zero agreement.
ReplyDeleteThe footprint - around 1,300 - 6,700 tonnes CO₂e from flights alone - approx. 52,000 meals = 90–260 tonnes CO₂e - roughly 104 MWh electricity + 730,000 litres water in catering.
We talk about plastic as the problem but maybe the bigger problem is the political theatre pretending to solve it. This was a mockery of environmentalism, wrapped in jet fuel and hotel buffets.