HOW THE UN PLASTIC TREATY CAN ENABLE SCALABLE SUBSTITUTES TO

This month, world leaders are meeting to agree the first-ever UN Global Plastics Treaty - a landmark opportunity to end plastic pollution. 

The Natural Polymers Group has produced a white paper exploring how the UN Global Plastics Treaty can enable credible, safe and scalable substitutes to avoid plastics in the first place. The Treaty is a historic opportunity not just to regulate plastic - but to catalyse the transition away from it. 

The Natural Polymers Group believes that the Treaty text should explicitly recognise and support the development and deployment of nature-based substitutes to plastic. In the white paper, the NPG calls for the UN Treaty negotiators to:

• Clarify definitions - establishing a clear, binding definition of natural, not chemically modified polymers as a distinct non-plastic category in the Treaty
• Commit to further work under the Treaty framework to establish science-based industry standards for what constitutes safe, environmentally sound and sustainable non-plastic substitutes
• Recognise regenerative end-of-life pathways acknowledging that natural polymers can be organically recycled 
• Support investment and R&D for non-plastic substitutes through treaty-linked funding mechanisms, enabling scale-up.