Dow, SAP, PepsiCo Explore INC-5 & The Global Plastics Treaty

Companies and governments around the world have been working for more than two years to try to create the Global Plastics Treaty – but to no avail. 

So how have negotiations gone, what went wrong and why do we need a plastics treaty?

Stephen Jamieson, Global Head of Product Marketing, at SAP Sustainability, Haley Lowry, Global Sustainability Director for Packaging and Specialty Plastics at Dow and Anke Boykin, Senior Director of Global Environmental Policy at PepsiCo share their insights.

What is INC-5, and what has come before it?

Stephen Jamieson: INC-5 is the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) for the UN Global Plastics Treaty that took place in Busan, South Korea, from 25 November to 1 December, 2024. 

This session marks the conclusion of negotiations that began in November 2022. Previous sessions, INC-1 through INC-4, have progressively built towards this final stage, focusing on various aspects of the treaty aimed at ending plastic pollution and promoting a circular economy for plastics.

Haley Lowry: The world has reacted so strongly to plastics pollution that the UN and global leaders responded by creating INC, a critical UN-led forum that is bringing together multiple governments to agree on solutions that will eliminate the leakage of plastic waste into the environment, help scale a sustainable, circular economy for plastics, and recognise the vital role of plastics in ensuring a low-carbon future. 

The fifth meeting – INC-5 – concluded with an agreement to resume negotiations at another INC session (INC-5.2).

Anke Boykin: INC-5 was the final session that had been scheduled at the start of the process in 2022. Unfortunately, and disappointingly, an agreement was not reached, and governments decided to schedule an additional round of negotiations at a date and location to be determined in 2025. 

My hope is that the momentum gained from INC-5 and the overall process will lead to a final agreement at INC-5.2 next year. But to achieve this, more governments must recognise the stakes and align with what most countries and industry see as necessary action to create meaningful change. The world should not give up on this once-in-a-generation opportunity. 

Why do we need a global plastics treaty?

Stephen Jamieson: A global plastics treaty is essential to address the escalating plastic pollution crisis. Without intervention, the flow of plastic into the environment is set to double by 2040. 

Ambitious global rules have the power to harmonise regulations and foster transparency. A global treaty can drive the systemic change we need by defining polymers, products and chemicals of concern, mandating disclosure and reporting and setting global standards for design and policy tools such as Extended Producer Responsibility.

For businesses in particular, a global plastics treaty offers a unified framework to reduce risks, allocate capital effectively and build sustainable supply chains. Technology and software solutions play a critical role in helping businesses operationalise a treaty.

There is a lot at stake here if we don’t get this right. Without a treaty, we can anticipate a significant increase of plastic pollution and associated human health risks. 

Haley Lowry: Progress is happening, but today less than 10% of plastic is recycled globally and 32% of plastic packaging escapes collection systems — suggesting that existing funding and policy frameworks for the waste management ecosystem are insufficient. We need coordinated global action to change that. 

Dow fully supports an agreement that will eliminate plastic pollution by creating a socially inclusive, circular economy for plastics that recognises the vital role these materials play in ensuring a low-carbon future. 

With demand for plastic on the rise globally and inadequate waste management systems in many countries, driving more sustainable production and addressing the growing problem of plastic waste are clear priorities. 

Truly sustainable production includes leveraging alternative and waste plastic feedstocks, creating products for both sustainability and performance, and embracing lower-emissions production.

Anke Boykin: The challenges of plastic pollution extend beyond any one nation or industry. 

System-wide global change across infrastructure, policy and business is required to enable a more circular economy for plastic packaging and drive more sustainable packaging innovation. 

This is why PepsiCo has been supportive of an ambitious and effective global agreement to end plastic pollution — to help level the playing field and drive the systemic change needed to tackle this challenge.

How will the UN Plastics Treaty create a better environment for business, alongside helping the world's plastic crisis?

Anke Boykin: We believe a UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution has the potential to spur significant progress towards a circular economy for plastic packaging. A treaty that establishes clear global rules, aligned definitions and metrics and agreement on measures to improve packaging design, collection and recycling is good for both governments and business. 

As a business operating globally, harmonised policy across nations will create a level playing field and provide greater regulatory clarity and certainty so we can invest in and scale solutions we know can be applied in different parts of the world.

We believe the treaty will be most successful if it prioritises collaboration across sectors and the business community is given the opportunity to share our expertise, particularly around improved waste management systems such as well-designed Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) based on industry aligned principles.

Stephen Jamieson: A UN Plastics Treaty will create a better environment for business by lowering barriers to trade, reducing operational costs, simplifying reporting and boosting economies of scale. In many cases, businesses have already put supporting practices into play to comply with regulations at state, regional and federal levels — and these differing regulations can be complicated and expensive to manage. Having a consistent global policy unifies the playing field and drives the type of efficiencies outlined above.

Further, developing metrics, standards and targets within the treaty creates a clear, shared mission for governments and businesses. The availability of data to feed into these targets will be critical, coming from corporate data models that aggregate information on materiality and data providers that determine plastic leakage on a granular scale. 

This two pronged-approach of setting reporting standards and then feeding in appropriate data using open-data models would foster market confidence in circular systems, allowing businesses to scale sustainable practices and foster innovation in product design and circular systems. 

Haley Lowry: US$32bn is already invested by the private sector every year to help develop a circular economy. A supportive, clear and consistent global policy framework would stimulate additional funding. To make a real difference, any agreement must create and nurture an environment that promotes innovation and investments at scale, including circularity drivers like sustainable design standards, recycled content mandates, national recycling targets and EPR in national action plans.

Smart policies can trigger an increased volume of plastic waste returning to the production process and de-risk investments in circularity by creating a stable market for those materials. Likewise, a global agreement can increase the available supply of recycled raw materials by encouraging nations to adopt recycling targets.

Returning plastic waste to the circular economy as feedstock is critical to advancing all forms of sustainable production. To achieve our shared ambitions, we must come together to create a circular economy that changes the way the world makes, uses, recycles and re-uses plastics.

What will businesses, technology and data need to do to operationalize/ actualise the treaty?

Haley Lowry: A circular economy for plastics is attainable only if we work in partnership across the materials value chain to close the recycled waste supply gap and create a system that unlocks value in waste — no one company can operationalise this alone.  

Our partnerships with converters and brands — ranging from auto manufacturers to consumer packaged goods companies — are being driven by synergies between corporations that share the common goal of advancing circular and low-carbon solutions. A global agreement will also help provide regulatory certainty to help super charge private sector investment in circular solutions.  

As we press forward toward a circular future, we must leverage various tools to help us get ahead. Establishing innovative projects with global partners to transform more plastic waste is one way. Design for circularity is another. The agreement on plastic pollution should include universal product design principles based on life-cycle assessments. These can lead to increased recycling and reuse and promote circularity in product designs.

Businesses are also developing a range of environmentally-sound recycling technologies to ensure the broadest range of plastic waste can be recycled. By enabling a suite of recycling technologies, we can achieve a major leap in the portion of plastics that can be recycled — especially hard-to-recycle plastics. 

Stephen Jamieson: Technology and data will play a critical role in operationalising the treaty by enabling traceability and transparency in the plastics lifecycle. Essentially, driving the operational execution of new global mandates so that business stakeholders can act on them.

Improved data and digital tracking will help businesses design for circularity, comply with regulations and make informed decisions about material use and waste management. SAP's solutions, for example, support the supply chain logistics and transactional systems responsible for the management of plastics and materials around the world. This helps our customers meet the treaty's requirements and contribute to ending plastic pollution.

How is PepsiCo advocating for harmonised regulations, and what role will the food and beverage industry play in helping to operationalise the treaty?

Anke Boykin: PepsiCo engages at global and local levels to send a clear message that business needs meaningful, consistent, global rules. We want to contribute our expertise, share our knowledge and constructively support the negotiation process to help negotiators in their effort to develop this agreement within an incredibly tight timeline. 

We are members of the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty where, based on a shared vision for a circular economy, we develop policy recommendations to engage with policy makers on the benefits of and necessity for an effective treaty. One of our priorities for a final treaty is the inclusion of common definitions and principles for countries to implement well-designed EPR programmes. 

Funded and managed by the companies that produce packaged goods through Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs), good EPR programmes adhere to common principles and are designed to meet local needs. Such well-designed EPR can support local waste management practices by making recycling an easier part of everyday life and improving recycling systems to help reduce plastic pollution. 

We know from experience the positive impact that well-designed EPR programmes can have on supporting recycling rates through dedicated and ongoing funding for the collection and recycling of consumer packaging. Through the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty, we continue to offer our expertise and perspective to governments to help enact aligned and effective EPR principles. 

PepsiCo has invested millions to develop more sustainable packaging and advance circular solutions. This includes investments to drive innovations of packaging design, more sustainable materials or new business models. For example, introducing paper packaging for Quaker porridge pots in the UK or incorporating more recycled content, rPET, in our beverage bottles. We also engage in multi-stakeholder collaborations to improve waste management, recycling and reuse systems, investing in voluntary collection, sortation and recycling pilots around the globe. A treaty that provides clearly defined rules for how plastic packaging is designed, used and handled after use can help focus and scale these types of investments, allow for better alignment between business and government and help build a more circular economy for plastic packaging.

How is Dow advocating for policy agreements and regulations in plastics and waste?

Haley Lowry: Policies being discussed in this global treaty, like EPR that I mentioned previously, which is being implemented by countries across the globe, provide a huge opportunity to further unlock the economics and enable investment in circular solutions. 

Embracing concepts like EPR and mass balance accounting will encourage the plastics value chain to take on additional financial and operational obligations from raw materials to end-of-life, while incentivising greater use of recycled plastics.

A successful agreement can end the leakage of plastic waste into the environment while preserving the essential benefits of this valuable material to our society. 

With meaningful collaboration among stakeholders, a circular economy for plastics is within our reach. We want to see a practical, sustainable and implementable agreement, and cannot miss this opportunity to seize it.

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