The Putting INC to Paper Outcomes of The Paris Negotiations for the Global Plastics Treaty
We were pleased to witness the level of commitment in the discussions and we’re pleased to share our experiences of a spirited and productive week that was packed with insightful conversations, connections, and new collaborations. This is a short summary of the things we heard about, saw and discussed in Paris!
“Make Paris count”
The day before the week, the executive secretary Jyoti Mathur-Filipp appealed to members to “make Paris count.” In the end, there would be some issues to be overcome in the first step. “Getting more than 170-plus nations to come together on the creation of a global treaty that would combat plastic pollution is not going to be an easy task. However, negotiators weren’t expecting that getting over one of the initial hurdles would prove so difficult,” writes Leonie Cater in Politico.
“After a week of negotiations, the world is one step closer to the unmissable opportunity of a global treaty to end the plastic pollution crisis,” said Marco Lambertini, WWF Special Envoy, in the form of a press announcement. “The first draft of the treaty that will now be developed must reflect the ambition shown by the vast majority of countries here in Paris and include the global bans and control measures that are needed to reduce and eliminate production and consumption of unnecessary and harmful plastic products and materials and turn the tide on plastic pollution.”
“Progressive businesses want an ambitious global legally binding treaty”
“Voluntary action by individual companies and their leaders can only ever be one part of the solution,” said Mark Schneider, Chief Executive Officer at Nestle and Antoine de Saint-Affrique Chief Executive Officer of Danone in the WEF’s blog urging a unified regulation to combat plastic pollution.
The Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty, of which Delterra is an NGO participant of, stated in an announcement, “We believe that legally binding global regulations and coordinated policies are crucial to effect the world to change to stop the pollution caused by plastic. We are extremely pleased to note that more than 130 of the member states have specifically urged legally binding rules that ensure a fair play field that is fair for everyone in companies.”
“The question is no longer why, but how”
Together with our founding partner McKinsey & Company, Delterra was delighted to host about 40 senior leaders from international NGOs, companies and institutions for a candid discussion about circularity’s future in plastics as well as the implementation of sustainable packaging pledges.
“Last year, 175 countries adopted a resolution to create a legally binding agreement by the end of 2024 to end plastic pollution,” Shannon said when she opened the roundtable. “Just like state decisions are vital to propel forward, companies also play a significant role take on. For businesses, the issue isn’t so much why to you should reduce the amount of plastic waste however, but rather how. Collaboration across all value chains will be crucial.”
“There is a lack of funding for infrastructure in the Global South”
The most important thing to develop sustainable solutions that are scalable is to discover the universal truth and what is unique to the culture. When a region’s growth rate is more quickly than its recycling and waste management infrastructure, we must first understand the area and tailor solutions to local conditions that can transform this system into a manner that is sustainable and suited for the region, and will eventually be managed and owned by the local community.
“The big challenge in bringing the circular economy to the Global South is lack of funding for waste management and recycling infrastructure,” Shannon explained to Forbes in a recent interview. “This means that materials that are recyclable technically aren’t being reused simply because factories do not exist to take them in. The government has other pressing issues, and the need to borrow more money to pay for waste is not the top priority. It’s also not enough appealing that private investment investors can generate an income because there’s plenty of system construction to be done before projects are feasible for banks to finance.”
“Recycling alone is not enough to #BeatPlasticPollution”
Along with the partners of Systemiq, Delterra hosted a roundtable to design a system that does not rely on plastic waste using the assistance from Plastic IQ an open-source digital platform developed in collaboration with Delterra, The Recycling Partnership and Systemiq and supported by Walmart providing.
In his presentation at the ceremony, Mike said “This is a free-to-use suite of digital tools that allows companies to better understand the environmental and economic impact of their current plastic footprint, increase their knowledge on how to improve that impact, determine the most effective plastic footprint reduction strategy, and accelerate their transition to a circular economy.”
Thank you to the attendees and participants, including numerous Business for a Plastics Treaty members for the informative discussions and for promoting the production with less plastics, the circulation of materials, the remediation of leaky materials, and for ensuring sustainable existence for informal and formal waste workers.
