On Wednesday, representatives from 175 nations agreed to draft a global treaty that would start to tackle the exponentially growing amount of plastic pollution that we’re facing – essentially a Paris Agreement for plastics.

The agreement commits nations to work on a legally-binding treaty that would not only seek to improve recycling and prevent plastic from getting into the environment, but it would also start to reduce the amount of plastic that’s produced. Which means that we could see provisions in the eventual treaty that would ban more single-use plastic products and encourage more reusable packaging. 

And what’s really exciting is that Wednesday’s agreement specifies that any global treaty has to address the full lifecycle impacts of plastics – from production to disposal, recycling and reuse. 

The treaty will also address packaging design to cut down on plastic use, improve recycling and support developing nations with implementation. Negotiators are now set to meet this year to start hammering out the details, with the goal of having a treaty developed and ratified by 2024. 

This is an incredibly exciting development, and so many organizations have been working tirelessly on this. We especially want to thank our friends at the Center for International Environmental Law, the Environmental Investigation Agency, the World Wildlife Fund, BreakFreeFromPlastic and the Ocean Plastic Leadership Network.