UN talks must stay focused on ending plastic pollution

By: Steve Prusak, President and CEO, CPChem

The world is on the verge of a dramatic breakthrough in eliminating plastic pollution, but it’s up to the United Nations to keep treaty negotiations on track if we’re going to achieve it.

The potential UN breakthrough is happening on two fronts – its global treaty to end plastic pollution and the Global Framework on Chemicals.

The goal of treaty negotiations, established by a March 2022 UN resolution, is to end plastic pollution, a goal supported by Chevron Phillips Chemical and its industry peers.

The plastics treaty creates an unprecedented opportunity to not only curb pollution but to accelerate a circular economy for plastics. In a circular economy, plastic products are designed to be reused or recycled and ultimately remade into new products. With the right policy elements in place, the treaty can generate new value for used plastics, creating an economic incentive to keep them out of landfills and the environment.

We support many of the proven solutions that have been part of the treaty negotiations. For example, extended producer responsibility programs have garnered widespread support among governments. Producers pay into a fund for these programs that establish and manage collection, sorting and recycling systems and infrastructure. A third of the world, 2.7 billion people, lack basic waste collection, and we know this is the main driver of plastic pollution.

The Global Framework on Chemicals, adopted in 2023, was a major achievement in international cooperation. This voluntary agreement provides governments without a regulatory system for chemicals resources and tools to implement national legal frameworks and enables countries to coordinate on global chemical issues. This is particularly important for many developing countries where such chemical management laws don’t exist.

As the CEO of a petrochemical company headquartered in the U.S., I support the efforts to craft a plastics treaty that effectively helps end plastic pollution. I also support countries adopting comprehensive chemical management laws, which are critical to protecting public health and the environment. Countries with clear regulations also enhance my company’s ability to compete globally.

Unfortunately, negotiations this year have turned into a debate on regulating chemicals in plastics. While I support this type of regulation, the plastics treaty is the wrong vehicle with which to do it. The same chemicals in plastics can be used to make entirely different products, which is why we need to regulate chemicals for all their uses, not just plastics.

We do this in the United States through the Toxic Substances Control Act. Similar programs exist elsewhere, like the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals regulation -- REACH -- in the European Union. Such chemicals management programs are exactly what the UN’s Global Framework on Chemicals is meant to bring to countries lacking them.

It would be a shame if the past two years of negotiations and this historic opportunity to help solve a significant global issue were derailed because of efforts to regulate chemicals that are already regulated elsewhere. The contentious idea to create a duplicative regulatory system could squander the little remaining time needed to agree on solutions that could effectively end plastic pollution.

For enhanced transparency and sound management of chemicals used in plastics, industry has developed a plastic additives database. This database contains detailed information governments can access for free to help regulate plastic additives appropriately.

The plastics industry wants an agreement that is ambitious, feasible, equitable to the developing world and, most importantly, implementable. If countries don’t join the agreement because it’s impossible to implement, it will fail.

With the final round of negotiations set to take place at the end of November, there is no time for distractions. Negotiators need to support existing domestic and international frameworks on chemicals and avoid adding unnecessary stumbling blocks to an already complex plastics treaty negotiation.

Government negotiators must stay focused on keeping good ideas that can end plastic pollution as part of the final treaty. Plastic pollution is a problem, but it’s one we can fix if we work together. Let’s come together and finish what nearly 200 countries started in 2022: ending plastic pollution.