Report: US changing stance on UN plastics treaty

A source close to U.S. negotiators working on the United Nations Global Plastics Treaty has told Reuters the country intends to change its position on the matter in a significant policy shift.

According to Reuters’ report, the U.S. now will support a global target to reduce yearly plastic production, as well as the creation of a list of harmful chemicals to phase out. The report says the change from its previous position of leaving those decisions up to individual countries puts the U.S. in opposition to countries such as China and Saudi Arabia, which have advocated focusing on recycling and packaging design over production.

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However, the shift also aligns the U.S. closer to countries such as Canada, South Korea and European Union member states, which have been named “high ambition countries.”

The report says the U.S. now also supports working to create a possible global list of chemicals on which to develop obligations to avoid a “patchwork” of different national requirements, as well as set global criteria to identify what should be on a list of “avoidable plastic products” to phase out.

In a statement, Chris Jahn, president and CEO of the Washington-based American Chemistry Council (ACC), says that with its shift in position to support plastic production caps and regulate chemicals via the UN plastics agreement, “the White House has signaled it is willing to betray U.S. manufacturing and the hundreds of thousands of jobs it supports.

“This is a lose-lose situation,” Jahn says. “American jobs will be at risk of being outsourced. The cost of goods is likely to rise globally, impacting those least able to afford it. And the U.S. negotiators’ influence at the next round of negotiations will be significantly diminished since other countries know such drastic positions are unlikely to secure the 67 votes needed in the Senate to join the agreement.”

Jahn adds that the ACC still believes in the need for a strong global agreement to address plastic pollution.

“We can create a future where we retain the massive societal benefits plastics provide while also preventing used plastics from becoming pollution,” he says. “Unfortunately, this change in position by the White House will hinder both objectives.”

Similarly, the Washington-based Plastics Industry Association (Plastics) released a statement claiming the new support of plastic production caps is not only impractical, but directly harmful to all U.S. manufacturers.

“The plastic industry is the seventh-largest manufacturing industry in the United States and employs one million people,” Plastics President and CEO Matt Seaholm says. “With this decision, the White House has turned its back on Americans whose livelihoods depend on our industry, as well as on manufacturers in all sectors that rely on plastic materials.

“Furthermore, this reversal has undermined U.S. negotiators’ influence in UN negotiations as other countries know this extreme position will not receive support in the U.S. Senate. We are dedicated to keeping plastic waste out of the environment and believe we need to work together to achieve this. However, the White House’s drastic position change will not accomplish this goal, only set us back.”

Other organizations have come out in favor of the policy change.

Sian Sutherland, co-founder of organizations A Plastic Planet and the Plastic Health Council, says this could be a “seismic moment” in the ongoing treaty negotiations.

“The significant shift in approach by the U.S. goes against Saudi Arabia, China and many other petrostates who lobby for a tepid treaty to ensure they can continue pumping plastic out into the environment unabated,” Sutherland says in a statement. "It has been clear for decades that the current level of plastic production has been unsustainable, and its high time that the U.S. and the other leading economies of the world took their head out of the sand on the disastrous consequences of a business-as-usual approach.

“A Plastic Planet and Plastic Health Council are ready to work with the U.S. State Department to ensure the apparent ambition is translated into reality within the treaty’s provisions, and concrete measures to protect human health from the dangers of plastic contamination are at the heart of future legislation."

The UN Environment Program’s (UNEP’s) Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop a Global Plastics Treaty, or INC-5, is scheduled begin Nov. 25 in Busan, South Korea. The fourth session, which took place in Ottawa in April, featured more than 2,500 delegates representing 170 members and more than 480 observer organizations, including nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), intergovernmental organizations and UN entities, in attendance.

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Since, a number of countries agreed to hold intersessional talks centered on the financial mechanism of the treaty, plastic production, chemicals of concern in plastic products, product design reusability and recyclability, in hopes of coming closer to an agreement. At the time, however, some members left Ottawa frustrated as they were unable to come to a consensus on whether the treaty will have common global rules or voluntary ones, and whether the treaty will include measures to reduce production and consumption of plastic.

The U.S.’ shift in position on treaty talks follows policies introduced by the Biden administration in July that seek to phase out federal procurement of single-use plastics from food service operations, events and packaging by 2027, and from all federal operations by 2035.