Ahead of the final negotiations for the UN Global Plastics Treaty at the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee’s second part of the fifth session (INC-5.2) from August 5–14, 2025, in Geneva, Switzerland, researchers are calling for urgent government collaboration to address plastic pollution. The call follows the inconclusive INC-5.1 talks in Busan, South Korea (November 25–December 1, 2024), where 3,300 delegates failed to finalize a legally binding agreement due to divisions over production caps and chemical regulations.

In a Journal of Hazardous Materials article, environmental chemist Annika Jahnke and colleagues from Germany’s Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research, alongside researchers from Canada’s Memorial University, advocated for a circular economy to curb plastic pollution. “The production, use, and disposal of plastics are globally interlinked,” Jahnke stated, noting that raw plastics from countries like India and Saudi Arabia are processed in the Global North and used worldwide, often entering ecosystems due to poor waste management. The researchers proposed using non-toxic chemicals, transparent labeling, and designing products for recyclability to reduce the estimated 1.2 billion tonnes of plastic waste projected by 2060 under a business-as-usual scenario.

Open letters in Cambridge Prisms: Plastics demanded legally binding targets to cap plastic production, phase out over 13,000 toxic chemicals (e.g., PFAS and phthalates), and enforce global health safeguards. They emphasized including Indigenous Peoples, informal waste workers, and frontline communities in treaty design, citing their disproportionate exposure to pollution. The letters also called for robust financing mechanisms, including mandatory contributions from developed nations to support low- and middle-income countries, and compliance measures to ensure accountability, aligning with the polluter-pays principle.

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The High Ambition Coalition (Norway, Rwanda, EU, and others) supports these measures, while petrostates like Saudi Arabia and the US under Trump (post-January 2025) resist production cuts, favoring voluntary waste management. Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty reported harassment by industry lobbyists at INC-5.1, who outnumbered delegates, per @brkfreeplastic and @TheDailyClimate posts on X.

With 11 million tonnes of plastic entering oceans annually, researchers urge a treaty addressing the full plastic lifecycle to prevent tripling by 2040, drawing parallels to the Montreal Protocol’s success in reducing ozone-depleting substances.

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