Next month, we’re headed to Nairobi, Kenya to join hundreds of global leaders, peer organizations and NGOs for the third session(Opens a new window) of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA)(Opens a new window) Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop a Global Plastic Treaty. Our goal is to develop a first draft of the world’s first legally binding treaty to eliminate plastic pollution through a unified approach.
The UN Global Plastic Treaty(Opens a new window) is the most important environmental pact since the Paris Agreement(Opens a new window). A global treaty on plastic pollution will help reconcile and simplify the variety of waste management and recycling systems around the world. That’s why we strongly support the creation of this groundbreaking international agreement.
“We envision a world where no packaging becomes waste. Today, we are building momentum to create this future reality through collaboration and advocacy,” said Allison Lin, Global Vice President of Packaging Sustainability. “A global treaty on plastic pollution will accelerate action across the world to advance reuse and circularity solutions and reduce plastic waste. We support a global treaty because we believe that it will spur the creation of much needed infrastructure and create greater harmonization and efficiency around the world for all companies to better design and deliver sustainable packaging solutions.”
Plastic waste is a complex, global problem that is highly localized with unique challenges country-to-country and even city-to-city. Addressing it effectively means business, government and NGO actors must work together to create real and lasting solutions. But current rules governing plastic waste and recycling remain a patchwork of municipal, state and national policies. This makes it difficult for companies to efficiently innovate packaging solutions that meet the requirements of different geographies. The complexities also discourage many companies from committing to plastic waste reduction goals. Today, companies – including Mars – representing only 20% of all plastic packaging produced globally have signed up for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Global Commitment with ambitious 2025 targets for plastic waste reduction. We need the companies representing the remaining 80% to come onboard, and globally harmonized regulation is necessary to do so.
"The Global Commitment has shown it is possible to make meaningful progress to tackle plastic waste – but the world remains significantly off track,” said Rob Opsomer, Executive Lead - Plastics and Finance at Ellen MacArthur Foundation. “The Global Commitment's business signatories, have on average significantly outperformed their peers when it comes to taking action to tackle plastic waste. Voluntary action from business remains vital as a complement to long-term policy change, ensuring progress is pushed further and faster, and we call on all businesses to up their game.”
Greater certainty around plastic waste regulation is good both for business and the planet. That’s why Mars joined the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty(Opens a new window) along with more than 160 other companies, financial institutions and NGO partners that are collectively asking for an ambitious UN treaty with legally binding global rules and measures to drive change on a global scale – through harmonized regulations on reduction, circulation, and prevention alongside remediation. A treaty also will create economies of scale that make it easier for more large and small businesses to finally join the movement for a circular future.
Mars also understands that the global community must address regional infrastructure inequality. The global North must provide resources and technologies to help the global South rapidly leapfrog their infrastructure and capacity for circularity.
The world can’t afford to wait. That’s why Mars is working to create a more circular economy where packaging materials are recycled, reused or composted. We have strong plans in place to fund our massive redesign efforts and ensure all our packaging is designed for circularity, which is already the case for 59% of our portfolio. The world already produces twice as much plastic waste compared to two decades ago, with the bulk of it ending up in the landfill, incinerated or leaking into the environment; only 9%(Opens a new window) of that is recycled successfully. On the world’s current trajectory, the amount of plastic waste is set to almost triple by 2060.
We urge all members of the global business community to join us to support a Global Plastic Treaty. Learn more about how your organization can get involved with the Global Commitment here(Opens a new window).
