Since the nations agreed to a Treaty to End Plastic Pollution at a session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi in March, negotiations started on Tuesday in the a legally binding resolution. Negotiators from 175 nations will create a team of scientists to address the plastic pollution crisis worldwide.
The resolution, which is being called “the most important deal since the Paris Agreement,” will “bind countries to action plans at the national, regional, and international levels to work towards preventing, reducing, and eliminating plastic pollution,” Causes.com reported.
Not only will negotiations do multiple full-life-cycle assessments on plastics using social science research, it will also try and bring transparency and end the “greenwashing” spread by the plastic industry, experts and advocates said.
“The plastic wave,” which started in 1950, has produced 9.2 billion tons of non-recyclable plastics as of 2017 and experts said there is no sign of decline in the near future.
Treaty negotiations could take two to three years, but advocates said the resolution will start to address the growing problem since researchers first warned leaders of the “threat that global plastics production places on the environment” 30 years ago.
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