Washington, DC – (15 April 2024) As the fourth round of negotiations for a global plastics agreement (INC-4) begin next week in Ottawa, the Global Partners for Plastics Circularity (GPPC) encourage negotiators to come with a collaborative spirit, identify areas of agreement, and make progress in drafting language towards a final text.
Plastic pollution is a solvable problem, and the global agreement on plastics can serve as a catalyst to make this a challenge of the past. GPPC believes the momentum to have a final agreement by the end of the year at INC-5 must be seized upon. The global plastic and chemical industries unequivocally support its completion in the timeline agreed to by the UNEA 5/14 resolution.
The industries support an agreement that promotes plastics circularity, where used plastics are reused or remade instead of discarded. A circular economy preserves natural resources and helps prevent pollution. An agreement with circularity at its core is market-driven, will create jobs, and minimizes unintended consequences, such as greater costs for products and switching to materials with greater environmental impacts.
Plastics directly contribute to many of the UN Sustainable Development Goals by enabling clean water, renewable energy, improved healthcare, energy efficient transportation, and preventing food loss. The plastics agreement should continue to enable the essential role of plastics in creating a more sustainable future.
Benny Mermans, chair of the World Plastics Council, the global voice of the plastics industry, said: “Our members are investing billions of dollars in infrastructure to scale-up the supply of circular plastics, so that used plastics are prevented from entering the environment as waste, landfill or via incineration, and instead become new plastics. An effective global agreement will accelerate this progress by creating demand signals that incentivize the billions of dollars of additional investment required to tackle plastic pollution. This is why we urge everyone, including our industry and governments, to redouble our efforts and work even more closely together to find solutions in Ottawa.”
“Plastic additives are chemicals that are already regulated by chemical management systems around the world, and the 2023 Global Framework on Chemicals will help more countries implement effective chemicals management policies,” said Karen McKee, president of the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA). “Industry is going further by developing a global plastic additives database that will aggregate regulatory information from many jurisdictions to improve transparency and help governments make informed, risk-based decisions that are best for their constituents.”
GPPC encourages negotiators to engage with industry as a constructive resource. The industry has deep expertise and will continue to put forth practical, science-based solutions to help eliminate plastic pollution, without eliminating plastics’ critical benefits to society and our environment.
Global Partners for Plastics Circularity
The Global Partners for Plastics Circularity (GPPC) is a multinational collaboration of associations and companies that make, use and recycle plastics. GPPC is supported by the World Plastics Council and the International Council of Chemical Associations. We are advocating a global agreement to help accelerate a sustainable, circular economy for plastics. These modern plastic materials are used around the world to create essential and often life-saving products, many of which are critical to a lower carbon, more sustainable future.
Contact: Matthew Kastner
Phone: +1 202-961-0634
Email: matthew_kastner@americanchemistry.com