New plastic treaty document criticised for weaker ambition
A new informal reference document intended to revive stalled negotiations on a global treaty to end plastic pollution was released, and was quickly criticised by environmental groups and scientific experts for reflecting a less ambitious direction than earlier drafts
The document's chair explicitly clarified that it is an informal reference text, not a negotiated or agreed document
The move follows the collapse of formal treaty talks in August 2025, when a bloc of mostly oil-producing states pushed back against ambitious restrictions and sought to narrow the treaty's focus toward waste management rather than production limits
Research cited in coverage of the issue estimates that health problems caused by plastic pollution cost the world approximately USD 1.5 trillion annually
The Global Plastics Treaty Process — UNEA Resolution 5/14 and the INC
The proposed treaty traces back to a March 2022 resolution of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) that established an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to develop a legally binding instrument addressing plastic pollution across its full lifecycle, including in the marine environment.
Key Details
- UNEA Resolution 5/14 (March 2022) mandated the INC to complete its work by the end of 2024, covering the "full life cycle of plastic" — from production and design to use and disposal
- Successive negotiating rounds (INC-1 through INC-5) failed to reach consensus; INC-5.1 (Busan, late 2024) produced a "Chair's Text" but no agreement
- INC-5.2 (Geneva, August 2025) issued a Draft Text Proposal and a Revised Text Proposal, but talks adjourned without consensus on even a basis text, with the central disagreements being the scope of production limits, regulation of chemicals of concern, and the design of a finance mechanism
- The most recent informal reference document represents an attempt to restart momentum after this 2025 breakdown, but critics argue it retreats from earlier ambition on production caps
The criticised document is the latest step in this multi-year, still-unresolved UNEA-mandated process — understanding why INC-5.2 collapsed (the production-cap vs waste-management divide) is essential to understanding why the new draft is seen as "weaker."
India's Domestic Framework — Single-Use Plastics Ban and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
While the international treaty remains under negotiation, India has already implemented a domestic regulatory regime on plastics under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, through the Plastic Waste Management Rules.
Key Details
- The Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules, 2021 banned identified single-use plastic items (earbuds, balloon sticks, plastic flags, cutlery, certain packaging films, etc.) with effect from 1 July 2022, based on "low utility, high littering potential" criteria
- Plastic carry bags below 75 microns were banned from September 2021, with the thickness threshold raised further to 120 microns from December 2022
- The Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules, 2022 introduced an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework, making producers, importers, and brand owners responsible for environmentally sound collection and management of plastic packaging waste for its full life cycle, enforced through an EPR portal and Environmental Compensation penalties under the "polluter pays" principle
- India has taken a position in international negotiations that has generally emphasised waste management and recycling-based solutions, aligning it closer to the position of production-focused sceptics than to the "high-ambition" coalition pushing for binding production caps
India's own domestic approach (EPR and downstream waste management rather than upstream production caps) mirrors the very fault line — production limits versus waste management — that caused the 2025 international treaty talks to collapse and that critics say the new draft has tilted toward.
Basel Convention Plastic Waste Amendments (2019)
Distinct from the still-unfinished plastics treaty, an existing binding international instrument already regulates cross-border trade in plastic waste — the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes.
Key Details
- The Basel Convention (1989) is the principal global treaty governing international movement of hazardous and other wastes; amendments adopted in 2019 (effective January 2021) brought most plastic waste under its Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedure, requiring exporting countries to obtain consent from importing countries before shipping contaminated or mixed plastic waste
- India is a party to the Basel Convention and its 2019 plastic waste amendments, meaning unsorted/contaminated plastic waste exports to India now require this consent mechanism
- Unlike the still-unresolved UNEA plastics treaty (which would address production and lifecycle-wide obligations), the Basel amendments deal narrowly with waste trade, illustrating that international plastics governance is currently fragmented across multiple, narrower instruments rather than one comprehensive regime
The difficulty in finalising a comprehensive plastics treaty is partly why narrower instruments like the Basel Convention amendments have had to fill the gap on waste trade — the new "weaker ambition" draft, if adopted, risks leaving lifecycle-wide production regulation similarly unaddressed at the global level.
- Estimated global health cost of plastic pollution: approximately USD 1.5 trillion per year (per Lancet-cited research)
- UNEA Resolution 5/14 establishing the INC: adopted March 2022; original completion deadline end-2024
- INC-5.2 (Geneva) talks collapsed without consensus: August 2025
- India's Single-Use Plastics ban: effective 1 July 2022, under the Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) Rules, 2021
- Plastic carry bag thickness threshold in India: raised to 120 microns (from 75 microns) by December 2022
- Basel Convention plastic waste amendments: adopted 2019, entered into force January 2021, India is a party