Plastic Pollution: UN treaty talks and corporate action

Nature Breaking

A major UN conference to negotiate a global treaty on plastic pollution just ended without an agreement. But efforts may resume in 2025 to get a treaty over the finish line. In this two-part episode, you’ll hear first from Erin Simon, WWF’s vice president for plastic waste and business, about what happened at that conference in Korea (known as INC-5) and what comes next for the global fight against plastic pollution. Then, in Part 2, you’ll hear from Sheila Bonini, WWF’s senior vice president for private-sector engagement; and Kevin Keane, president and CEO of American Beverage (ABA) – the trade association representing the nation’s non-alcoholic beverage industry. Sheila and Kevin’s teams have been working together for the last five years to find different ways to achieve material circularity – which means that all the plastic, as well as other materials like aluminum, that get used are collected and remade into new products. Sheila and Kevin will tell us about what’s working, what hurdles still remain, and how they plan to advance their mission regardless of whether a global plastics treaty gets adopted.

Links for More Info:

Erin Simon Bio

Sheila Bonini Bio

Kevin Keane Bio

WWF Plastics Page

WWF-ABA Partnership

Sustainability Works Blog: “Five Years of Progress: WWF and ABA’s Partnership for Practical Solutions”

WWF Statement on INC-5 Outcome

Chapters:

0:00 Preview

0:24 Intro

2:22 Refresher on UN treaty process

5:39 Consensus as a weapon

8:52 What happened at INC-5

11:55 WWF’s 4 “must-haves” in a final treaty

13:53 Stumbling blocks in negotiations

17:26 Conclusion of negotiations

23:05 What happens next?

26:27 Role for companies

31:28 Interlude, Part 2 begins

33:07 Explaining the American Beverage Association

34:41 Why does ABA want to address plastic pollution?

38:08 WWF-ABA partnership

41:41 Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policies

46:54 Consumer awareness

48:39 ABA’s EPR principles

54:39 Building consumer confidence about recycling

56:30 Lessons for other industries

59:17 Plastic pollution is a bipartisan policy issue

01:02:41 WWF-ABA Lessons Learned

01:07:12 Outro