Embed justice in the UN Plastics Treaty
The UK Government should seek to use its influence to ensure that justice is a key plank of the UN plastics treaty, an international agreement that will set obligations on countries across the entire plastics lifecycle.
The UK Government must recognise that plastic pollution is not just an environmental problem but also a social one which affects millions of humans and so push for a treaty that fully addresses the impacts of plastic pollution on people living in poverty. The Scottish Government should also fully support this approach.
The UK Government has signed up as a member of a High Ambition Coalition for the treaty – a group of 85 countries who are calling for an ambitious treaty that brings an end to plastic pollution by 2040 – and as part of this the UK government should include in its negotiating position for a far-reaching plastic treaty measures around:
- Reduction: legally binding targets to reduce plastic production by 40% by 2040 and scale up reuse solutions
- Recycling: universal access to waste collection and recycling
- Respect: support for waste pickers, including a Just Transition
- Response: mechanisms to ensure businesses and governments take action
Disappointingly, at the end of 2024 175 governments met in Busan, South Korea to negotiate the UN details of the Global Plastics Treaty to end plastic pollution but the treaty was not finalised as expected. Meetings will now take place in 2025 to continue negotiations.
This strong international position should be matched by equally ambitious domestic action to reduce plastic waste. In Scotland this includes a Just Transition plan for reducing plastic production at the petro-chemical plant in Grangemouth. A group of UK NGOs, including SCCS members, recently called on the new UK Government to deliver a deposit return scheme, ban on new incineration capacity, introduce regulation to prevent plastic pellet loss and consult on a ban on plastic waste exports.
For further information:
- Plastic pollution and poverty, Tearfund, 2022, https://learn.tearfund.org/en/resources/policyreports/plastic-pollution-and-poverty
- Global Plastics Treaty collapses, Friends of the Earth Scotland, 2024, https://foe.scot/press-release/global-plastics-treaty-collapses/