A highly anticipated week of UN talks on plastic pollution has started in Busan, South Korea. The summit is officially called the fifth Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee discussions.

The event is a last chance to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the oceans.

But there are more plastics lobbyists at the conference than from any other grouping – that is, they are the single biggest delegation, says the Guardian.  

According to the newspaper, the Centre for International Environmental Law (CIEL) has counted 220 fossil fuel and chemical industry representatives at the event, which opened on November 25. They emphasise ‘waste management’ –or recycling – instead of production cuts.

Little plastic can be effectively recycled.

Around 460mn tonnes of plastics are produced globally every year, and if growth rates are unchanged, production will have tripled by 2060.

Since 2000, plastic waste has grown more than 200% from 156mn tonnes to 353mn tonnes in 2019. Only 9% was recycled, said an OECD report cited by the Guardian. Only 12% have been incinerated, and the balance is in landfills or in environment, often the ocean, says Politico.

As much as 199mn tonnes of plastic is in the oceans, equal to the weight of around 1mn blue whales – and up to 10mn tonnes is dumped in the oceans every single year, adds Politico.

More than 170 countries and over 600 observer organisations have registered for the talks.

“Our world is drowning in plastic pollution. Every year, we produce 460mn tonnes of plastic, much of which is quickly thrown away,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres via video message, as he called on delegates to reach a binding deal.

“By 2050, there could be more plastic than fish in the ocean. Microplastics in our bloodstreams are creating health problems we’re only just beginning to understand,” he said.  

The summit follows four previous rounds which began 1,000 days ago in Uruguay.

 “Some plastics can take up to 1,000 years to decompose,” UNEP chief Inger Anderson said, and even then, “they break into ever smaller particles that persist, pervade and pollute...Damaging ecosystem resilience, blocking drainage in cities and also very likely harming human health and growth in plastic pollution is emitting more greenhouse gases, pushing us further into climate disaster. That is why public and political pressure for action has risen into a crescendo.”

Around 40% of the world’s plastic waste comes from packaging, says Our World in Data. Plastic is made from oil. And as much as $1.64 trillion will be needed within the next 15 years to “beat plastic pollution,” says UN estimates. 

Oil-rich countries are resisting a treaty, while small island nations are those most avidly pushing for one.  “You can't get to 1.5 (Celsius, as in the Paris Agreement] or probably even a two-degree target without massively constraining plastics production,” Dennis Clare, a legal adviser for Micronesia’s negotiating team, told Politico.