The US is to agree to the global treaty for a reduction in plastic production, according to Reuters.

This is a significant policy shift, but there now appears to be support for a UN treaty that will focus on production limits as well as recycling and packaging design.

Over the last few years, the US has been adamant that the focus should solely be on downstream measures such as recycling, and production should be left up to individual countries, leaving the US the only G7 country not in the “high ambition coalition against plastic pollution”.

Talks in the South Korean city of Busan at the end of the year should now result in a far wider reaching agreement, although politics may slow implementation and, of course, some of this will depend upon who occupies the White House at the time.

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