Countries address ‘global crisis’ of plastic pollution at Geneva summit
Representatives from 180 countries are meeting in Geneva to negotiate a new global agreement on plastic pollution. A Belgian delegation, including the federal ministries of Public Health, Foreign Affairs and Environment and Flemish waste management company OVAM, is attending the 10-day summit.
The negotiations are a new attempt to reach a binding international plastic treaty. Worldwide, barely 10 per cent of plastic is recycled, while production continues to increase.
According to figures from the OECD, plastic production rose from 2 million tons in 1950 to 475 million tons in 2022. That figure is expected to triple by 2060 without intervention.
"The fight against plastic pollution and reducing the production of new plastics are global challenges"
Flanders achieved a recycling rate of 83.7 per cent for plastic bottles in 2023, according to figures requested by MP Sanne Van Looy. The region developed a five-year plan for plastics in 2020.
“In Flanders, we are leaders in recycling, including plastics. The fight against plastic pollution and reducing the production of new plastics are global challenges,” said Flemish Environment minister Jo Brouns.
Opening the discussions in Switzerland, organised by the UN Environment Programme, Ecuadorian diplomat Luis Vayas Valdivieso called on states to take responsibility for curbing a “global crisis”.
“Plastic pollution damages ecosystems, pollutes our oceans and rivers, threatens biodiversity, affects human health and places an unfair burden on the most vulnerable,” he said. “The urgency is real, the evidence is clear and the responsibility lies with us.”
Previous negotiations in Busan, South Korea, ended in December without agreement. More than 100 countries demanded caps on plastic production, but oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia and Russia blocked the proposal.
Plastic pollution is a “serious, growing and underestimated” health hazard that costs the world at least 1.5 trillion dollars a year, experts warned in a report published on Monday in the medical journal The Lancet.
Activists on the sidelines of negotiations to draw up a legally binding global plastics treaty in Geneva, 4 August 2025 © PHOTO FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP
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