A timely wake-up call: India must urgently address plastic pollution

Beverage firms, big users of PET bottles, are exploring the possibility of seeking legal recourse for extending the deadline, principally because of the challenges involved in the transition

Last week, nearly 100 countries called for an ambitious agreement on global plastics negotiations at the third United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France, held between June 9 and 13. Labelled the “Nice Wake Up Call for an Ambitious Plastics Treaty”, the initiative is an effort to address the failure of countries to reach a legally binding plastics treaty at Busan, South Korea, in December last year. This “wake-up call” makes an important shift. Having concluded that just better waste management and recycling will not work, it seeks to reduce the production and consumption of plastics and plans to convince