The UN plastics treaty must cut plastic production and inequality

Andrew Schwartz is Senior Policy Advisor at The Common Initiative.

The U.N. Plastics Treaty being negotiated this week in Busan, South Korea, is the culmination of two years of work. These ‘INC-5’ talks can deliver a legally binding agreement to address the escalating plastic pollution crisis.

Two years is a remarkably short window for pulling together this kind of international treaty, and this urgency has forced negotiators to tackle complex challenges with a blunt instrument rather than with surgical precision.

There are fears that the treaty will offer the appearance of meaningful action without delivering any substantive outcomes. As we noted in our recent position paper, the latest draft stripped out references to climate change and biodiversity, barely mentioned single-use plastics and microplastics, and only included ambiguous language about capping plastic production. Plastic production is expected to quadruple by 2050, emitting an estimated 56 gigatons of carbon, or 10-13% of the remaining carbon budget.

Perhaps most critically, it removed most any mention of Indigenous peoples, local communities, and the human rights impacts of plastic pollution. This is an enormous step backwards.

The Plastics Treaty must be recognised as a treaty on human rights and environmental justice - an understanding that has been glaringly absent thus far. Plastic pollution now impacts everyone on the planet, with traces found in our brains, reproductive systems, and major organs. Even newborns are not immune: microplastics have been detected in the earliest stages of human development, condemning future generations to a life shaped by plastic contamination.

The treaty drafts reduce the crisis to sanitised metrics that strip away the profound human and ecological stakes. This ignores the harsh reality: plastic pollution endangers human health, devastates ecosystems, and worsens with every passing year of unchecked production.

The impacts of unregulated plastic production on the health of humans and our planet demand more attention than they are already receiving. We are seeing ‘waste colonialism’, where wealthier nations offload plastic waste onto poorer ones, and the informal workers whose lives and livelihoods depend on the West’s trash.

The final treaty must include comprehensive regulations covering the entire lifecycle of plastics, from the extraction of fossil fuels to disposal. It must empower consumers with transparent information about the hazards of plastic and address the deep-rooted inequalities exacerbated by waste colonialism.

There are an estimated 15-20 million informal waste workers worldwide, many of whom are women and children, who are regularly exposed to hazardous materials and unsafe conditions without protective gear. The Treaty must confront this inequality head-on. These workers are essential to managing the world’s plastic crisis, yet they receive no recognition, protection, or support.

INC-5 must address the systemic inequalities facing waste workers by ensuring they are both protected and fairly compensated. Effective solutions require more than surface-level fixes: they must empower frontline communities by establishing direct and inclusive funding models.

To genuinely support informal workers, the Treaty must also create standards to ensure investments directly strengthen local value chains and foster socio-economic resilience. This means designing systems that enable vulnerable economies to thrive independently, rather than perpetuating cycles of dependency or exploitation. It isn’t just sound policy - it’s a moral imperative for advancing equitable global progress.

A sustainable future starts with dismantling the throwaway culture that producers have forced upon consumers. This waste-driven system not only pollutes our planet but also eclipses any hope for true sustainability.

The Plastics Treaty must facilitate a just transition to a low-carbon, toxic-free, zero-waste economy rooted in reuse and circularity. This means prioritising marginalised communities that bear the brunt of plastic production, use and disposal.

By addressing these inequities, the Treaty can empower communities, safeguard workers, and set the stage for a healthier, more equitable, and sustainable world.