UN Plastic Treaty - Is the Bottle Totally Empty, or Half Full.....?

The 6th negotiating session of the United Nations (UN) Plastic Treaty came to an inconclusive end last week in Geneva, to the surprise and distrust of much of the press and environmental community. The lack of agreement among 180 countries, however, should not be a surprise, and should not be considered a failure. Is the glass “half empty, or half full?” Four years ago, there were no countries which had negotiating teams for plastic pollution issues, as there was nothing to collectively negotiate on. But fast forward to today, and for the past three years, we have had negotiating teams from over 180 countries, talking about how to best address plastic pollution, which everyone agrees, should not happen. For us to expect a global agreement of this scale to be reached within under three years might well be unreasonable, but the overall goal is to figure out how to the point of scaled reduction in plastic pollution, and which levers and components should be collectively used to do so.

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