The international community has started negotiations on a global treaty to end plastic pollution. The treaty is focused on the plastic pollution across the lifecycle of plastic, arising from the over-use and mismanagement of plastic products.
The treaty will contain a range of provisions to tackle these issues across the product life cycle. A key area of opportunity is the promotion of reuse, and particularly a transition from single-use to reusable products.
Reuse has the potential to reduce material use (as one item can substitute for multiple single-use items) and the leakage of material into the environment (both by placing fewer longer life items into circulation, and directly incentivising the responsible return of those items into reuse systems). It also offers additional environmental co-benefits, most notably in terms of potential emissions savings. Identifying the most promising reuse applications, and the ways in which a global treaty can facilitate positive systemic change, is the purpose of this report.
WWF and the Plastic Free Foundation wanted to explore people’s views on possible approaches to a treaty and whether it should include global rules to curb plastic consumption and pollution. To do this, they asked people from 34 countries questions about how a treaty could be set up and specific global rules that could be included in a treaty.