Plastic pollution is still a problem. The United Nations meeting in Geneva hopes to change this

On Thursday, Tony Walker will go to Geneva.

The University of Delosi University will meet with the United Nations International negotiating committee (INC), which is on its sixth tour of the talks on an international treaty binding on plastic pollution. The session started on Tuesday and is scheduled to take place until August 14, with 175 countries – including Canada – at the negotiating table.

While Walker says that Canada has made progress in combating plastic pollution, he believes that the country – and the world in general – can do a lot. Regarding global talks, he says it is concern about countries such as Saudi Arabia or Iran that prevents unanimity.

“Starting next week, if we cancel all sources of plastic and plastic production in Canada, we are just one country,” CBC News told CBC News.

“We have a few population for the rest of the world, and the way the global economy is now created, we are all commercial partners – we still need to buy things from abroad.”

Walker says that the negotiating team at Canada had to extract information with experts like him before and after each meeting.

The deadline was the original committee in December 2024 in Busan, South Korea. However, the deep divisions between countries mean that they were not compatible.

“We are sure that no one wants a plastic pollution. However, we could not find a systematic and effective way to stop it,” told the Associated Press.

Experts say we need to act now

“Since the negotiations began three years ago, we have learned a lot about the environmental effects and the health effects of plastic materials, especially fine plastic,” Walker said.

He says it’s more urgent than ever that the world has reached an agreement on plastic pollution.

“It is not just an aesthetic problem on our beaches and on our streets, but in every one being we have studied so far, including ourselves.”

He said that one of the main points in Busan was a group of oil producing countries with great interest in producing plastic materials. He believes that they do not want hats on plastic production because they believe it will harm their economies.

“But this is incredibly short -looking when we know that we have a plastic pollution crisis, which actually affects the health of planets and also human health,” he said.

Experts and other groups also urge more procedures.

Greenpeace calls for a decrease of at least 75 percent in plastic production by 2040.

The countdown to forget about health and plasticPublished in Health policy On August 3, 2025 estimates that less than 10 percent of plastic recycled has been recycled and that 8000 MEt of plastic is now contaminated the planet.

Access to consensus

Canada is one of the members High aspiration allianceA group of countries that aim to end plastic pollution by 2040.

Walker says that Canada’s position was always very strong in plastic pollution, and that they were one of the first signing of a global agreement binding on.

“On our western coast, we are a petroleum product,” says Walker. “But still, our government negotiators consider human health and the health of planets more important.”

Christa Siman, Vice President of Plastic at the Chemistry Industry Association in Canada, on the ground in Geneva as an observer-listening to negotiations and answering technical questions, as needed. It is there to represent the industry, monitor, along with environmental groups, the original countries and scientific alliances.

She said: “There is a lot of energy …. All parties are really committed to working to put the finishing touches on an internationally binding tool to finish plastic pollution.”

“It is really exciting to be able to participate and listen to negotiations and what we hope will be a historic event.”

CIAC says the plastic circular, where plastic is reused, reshaped and gave another life instead of getting rid of it.

“The agreement in which we hope, as the industry, will focus on ending plastic pollution while allowing society to continue to benefit from plastic materials.”

I heard talks about waste management, the responsibility of the expanded product and the product design.

Its main concern is that she does not want perfection to hinder progress. She said that there are some points of disagreement in the past, but it seems that the focus – at least on the first day – is to find the points of rapprochement and agreement between countries.

“The existence of a treaty guarantees that everyone is implementing the same thing, and that we all move in the same direction,” said Seman, who says she is optimistic about all countries working on an agreement.

“This will be very important if we want not only to get a circular, but plastic pollution.”

More than just waste management

Tim Rodgers, a post -PhD fellow at the University of Columbia, says the current negotiations in Geneva are important due to the gaps in how chemicals in plastic and their management around the world.

He hopes that a global agreement will help fill some of these gaps.

He says that there should be more transparency about what is in products, such as tires, and the entire life cycle of plastic materials-not only waste management.

“If you only have something to cover the end of life for these vehicles, I think this will be a real lost opportunity,” said Rodgers.

“You have to think about what is happening initially in order to get a good waste management.”