‘All options still on the table’ for limiting plastics production: Guilbeault

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says all options to eliminate plastic waste are still on the table in negotiations for a global plastic treaty including putting legislated caps on how much plastic the world produces in the first place.

But he says he can’t predict where nations will land when they finalize the treaty in Korea this fall, or whether it will go far enough to address the concerns of developing nations.

On the final day of talks in Ottawa Monday, Rwanda and Peru asked countries to consider reducing new plastics production by 40 per cent by 2040, based on a 2025 benchmark. 

Those were the same two countries that called for the treaty in the first place.

Greenpeace criticized Canada for allowing the talks to wrap Monday without establishing a clear path toward curbing the production of new plastic.

Guilbeault says negotiators from 175 nations made significant progress toward a binding treaty aimed at cutting plastic waste with the final negotiations set for Korea in the late fall.