WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Efforts to finalize a global agreement to tackle the staggering and growing amount of plastic waste and its impact on human health, marine life and the economy, got underway in Geneva Tuesday.
Unless an international accord is signed, plastic waste is projected to triple by 2060, causing significant damage - including to human health - according to the UN Environment Program, or UNEP.
The UNEP-led talks follow a decision in 2022 by Member States to develop an international legally binding instrument to end the plastic pollution crisis, including in the world's seas, within two years.
The scale of the problem is massive, with single-use products such as straws, cups and stirrers, carrier bags and cosmetics containing microbeads ending up in oceans and landfill sites.
Supporters of a deal have pointed to the pressure allegedly being brought to bear against a deal by petrostates, whose crude oil and natural gas industries provide the raw material for plastics production.
'We will not recycle our way out of the plastic pollution crisis: we need a systemic transformation to achieve the transition to a circular economy,' UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen has insisted.
The aim of the deal is for it to encompass the full life cycle of plastics, from design to production and disposal 'to promote plastic circularity and prevent leakage of plastics in the environment', according to the text being used to guide the talks of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) gathering in the Swiss city.
Delegations from 179 countries are meeting in UN Geneva for the 10 day-conference, alongside more than 1,900 other participants from 618 observer organizations including scientists, environmentalists and industry representatives.
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