Towards a global solution for plastic pollution

This is part of a series of impact stories highlighted in our 2024 Impact Report. To explore more impact stories, see the full collection.

Advocating for the most ambitious global plastics treaty has been at the heart of our plastics programme this year. Our work with leading businesses and governments over the last six years has begun to shift the course of the plastics industry, but has also shown us that voluntary business action can only take us so far. It needs to be bolstered by more, and more ambitious, binding policy measures. Global rules for plastics are crucial to driving the wide scale change needed to end plastic pollution.

Our efforts to date have given us the insights and connections to inform negotiations and push for the most impactful agreement possible. Over the past two years, we’ve engaged 40 ministers, held 50 in-country meetings, and engaged more than 100 negotiators to provide technical expertise and demonstrate industrial appetite for strong measures. We have never before seen so many countries aligned on ambitious obligations, including global phase outs, global product design requirements, circular economycircular economyA systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. It is based on three principles, driven by design: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature. systems, and sustainable levels of virgin plastic production. Despite this, countries have not yet reached a final agreement. Whilst divisions over some key issues remain, we are energised by the clear level of ambition shown by the majority of countries, and are committed to continuing this work and driving progress as negotiations continue into 2025.

Meanwhile, we are supporting and encouraging real world action on plastics through the Global Commitment, the world’s largest voluntary effort to tackle plastic pollution. Last year we identified three hurdles to progress: scaling reusereuseThe repeated use of a product or component for its intended purpose without significant modification., flexible plastic packaging in high-leakage countries, and lack of infrastructure to collect and circulate packaging. Since then, we’ve been focusing our efforts on overcoming these key barriers. In reuse, we have built on our report showing how and why returnable packaging systems can be scaled, to mobilise the recommendations and begin to make reuse mainstream. This is already beginning to yield results, for example, the Dutch government, European Investment Bank, and business are now exploring how reuse can be scaled in the Netherlands, and we supported the development of a large-scale returnable food packaging scheme, set to launch in France in 2025.

The Plastics Pact Network – our model for convening national stakeholders to drive action-oriented initiatives on the ground – is also driving real, measurable change. We reflected on the progress of this initiative in our 2024 report, published with our partner, WRAP, Scaling Impact: The Plastics Pact Network’s Six-Year Journey Towards Eliminating Plastic Pollution and Waste, which found that the Plastics Pacts have eliminated tens of billions of problematic or unnecessary plastic items and incorporation of recycled content into packaging has increased by 44%. These successes have inspired the Chinese government to develop a plastics platform, modelled on the Plastic Pact approach, to drive accountable action in China.

Changing how we produce and use plastic: five pivotal milestones