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Unilever’s CEO, Hein Schumacher, said there’s no time to waste in agreeing a Global Plastics Treaty. He talked during a plenary session at the latest round of negotiations, in Ottawa, on behalf of Unilever as a member of the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty. He later wrote that a treaty is “exactly what business needs”. He is calling on governments to level the playing field, saying that “business responds to regulatory certainty, but the reality is we are facing a hugely fragmented policy environment for packaging from country to country”. Hein says plastics reduction is the fastest way to cut plastic pollution, but “how the treaty will seek to reduce virgin plastic production remains unclear” and the same can be said for “how it will help scale reuse and refill models.” He was encouraged by progress in some areas but said “governments should prioritise discussions on upstream measures such as phasing out problematic and avoidable plastic products in a globally coordinated way, and harmonising design criteria for plastic packaging.”
[Image Credit: © Unilever]