In 2022, UN member states took a historic step toward tackling one of the world’s greatest environmental challenges by agreeing to negotiate a global treaty to end plastic pollution.
As the crucial fifth Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee in Busan approaches, WRAP stands in support of a high-ambition treaty. Together with businesses, governments, and NGOs, we are driving forward solutions to eliminate plastic pollution once and for all.
A high ambition global treaty
Aligned with the Business Coalition we call for a treaty that must be legally binding, addressing the entire lifecycle of plastics with a comprehensive circular economy approach. To combat plastic pollution, ambitious goals should focus on eliminating unnecessary plastics, prioritising reuse, and adopting recyclable materials.
Policies must enforce the polluter pays principle, ensuring financial responsibility for waste management. Investments are vital in impacted low-income regions, fostering infrastructure, business transitions, and skills development. Sustainable plastic production should align with international commitments like the Bridge to Busan, while national policies must include strong Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), especially for flexible plastics. A just transition is crucial for recycling workers, ensuring fair livelihoods and markets. Efforts must extend beyond packaging to tackle microplastics, fishing nets, textiles, and other ocean pollutants across sectors.
Our Global Impact
Transforming the Plastics Packaging System
In 2018, WRAP and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation launched the UK Plastics Pact - a trailblazer initiative inspiring a global network of 13 Plastics Pacts now operating across every populated continent.
These partnerships serve as helpful mechanisms for nations and the industries within them to meet obligations under the UN Global Treaty to End Plastic Pollution.
Partnering Globally to Drive Change
Scaling Our Impact: Plastics Pacts in Action
Proven Models for Success
Six years of experience demonstrate that Plastics Pacts drive measurable impact and are uniquely positioned to inform and fulfill Treaty commitments, more detail on how is shown in the first ever impact report of the Plastics Pact Network.
Voluntary action needs to be complemented by policy that creates the right incentives and regulatory frameworks to support the impact that’s required to end plastic pollution. An ambitious Global Treaty for Plastics, with legally binding global rules, is essential to ensure plastics are kept within the circular economy and out of the natural environment.
5 Learnings from the Plastics Pact Network
Insights from the Plastics Pact Network can help to shape the required national action to resolve the plastics crisis, regardless of the outcome of the Global Treaty negotiations. Key recommendations and learnings are:
1. Full value chain collaboration
Collaboration across the full value chain, including the informal waste sector as appropriate, is critical to address system barriers. The Pact model facilitates this.
2. Systemic approach
It is essential to address every stage of the plastic lifecycle, from reducing unnecessary and problematic single-use plastics, reuse/refill systems, design for recycling, collections and processing, through to sustainable end markets, all while ensuring no unintended consequences and a just transition. The Pacts deliver this through a comprehensive set of targets across the plastics lifecycle.
3. Data driven decision making and accountability
Measurable targets, regular progress monitoring and reporting, as well as using data to understand where to focus effort is critical. At minimum this should be collective, public reporting. The Plastics Pacts provide annual reports on progress, with honest appraisal.
4. Combining ambitious policies with voluntary business action
A robust regulatory framework is essential to driving the scale of change that is needed to end plastic pollution. But voluntary action is complementary:
Voluntary action ahead of regulations: Significant impact can be achieved ahead of regulation through ambitious targets supported by industry. The Pact model provides a framework for this.
A pathway to regulation: The Pact framework can pave the way by developing definitions, setting the level of ambition and scope and ability to monitor. This provides governments with a gateway to regulate, including a forum to engage with industry.
Overcoming challenges to implement regulations: The pre-competitive collaborative space provided by the national Pacts enables industry to come together to identify the barriers, foster innovation and scale solutions ahead of regulations.
5. Fostering knowledge – nationally and internationally
The Pacts provide a mechanism to cultivate skills, resources and knowledge across all stakeholders. And the global network of Pacts leverages collective knowledge and supports alignment across the world.
To find out more on how they can be applied to the design of national action plans, check out the Scaling Impact report or contact us.
Transforming the world's plastic systems
We’re redesigning the plastics system, across the value chain — preventing waste and keeping the material out of the environment.
6 years of global impact
See how the Plastics Pact Network has been overcoming complex challenges on their journey to eliminating plastic pollution.
Working with us.
The success of our voluntary agreement approach has led to us working collaboratively with organisations around the world, to develop agreements that suit local requirements and priorities.
We work with in country partners to ensure each initiative is suitable and impactful in the region it is intended for and we work in collaboration with your organisation, bringing operational and technical expertise to help deliver impact in your country or region.
The opportunity to come together and look for pre-competitive collaboration opportunities is really crucial and WRAP convening through The UK Plastics Pact provides a vehicle for doing that.