Willemijn Peeters, head of consultancy Searious Business, says the treaty needs to move the world away from virgin plastic and into what she calls “real recycling” with extended producer responsibility laws and deposit return systems.

Peeters, who is a paid consultant for the United Nations Environment Programme and an unpaid adviser to the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty, says countries should understand that some companies like those in the business coalition want strict regulations.

Editor’s note: Peeters attended the negotiations with a media pass from Sustainable Plastics magazine, which is owned by Crain Communications, the parent company of Plastics News. PN interviewed her in her role with Searious Business. The media pass with SP was issued by the United Nations Environment Programme, which is organizing the treaty negotiations.

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Yvette Arellano heads the Houston-based environmental justice organization Fenceline Watch.

The group, which advocates for communities along the petrochemical corridors of the U.S. Gulf Coast, sees the treaty as “vital” to its work reducing pollution and toxic chemical exposure in those communities and halting the growth of plastic production. Arellano said the negotiations also increase international oversight of state and federal government actions in the U.S.

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Betsy Bowers, the head of the Expanded Polystyrene Industry Alliance, came to the Paris talks in listening mode and to react to early calls in the treaty discussions to include EPS packaging on a list of banned or problematic plastic materials.

The group, which represents companies that make EPS packaging used in consumer products like electronics, is closely monitoring treaty discussions around extended producer responsibility laws and is interested in how depot collection programs like those being considered under Oregon’s EPR law could be used elsewhere.

Ed Shepherd offers the perspective of the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty, which wants the agreement to reduce plastics made from virgin fossil fuels and identify problematic plastics or products that can be eliminated.

The coalition is made up of major consumer brand companies like Unilever, where Shepherd works, as well as financial institutions and some global plastic packaging companies. He argues that the expected growth in virgin plastic production in coming years could make it very hard to meet the objectives of the treaty, without strong action.

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Ed Shepherd offers the perspective of the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty, which wants the agreement to reduce plastics made from virgin fossil fuels and identify problematic plastics or products that can be eliminated.

The coalition is made up of major consumer brand companies like Unilever, where Shepherd works, as well as financial institutions and some global plastic packaging companies. He argues that the expected growth in virgin plastic production in coming years could make it very hard to meet the objectives of the treaty, without strong action.

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Flexible plastic packaging has recycling challenges but is popular in the marketplace, protecting food while being lightweight and reducing other environmental impacts.

Graham Houlder, the director of the European industry group Ceflex, said they want to see the treaty endorse extended producer responsibility legislation and global packaging design standards to deal with recycling challenges. The prominence of flexibles like pouches on grocery shelves — it packages about half the food in Europe and elsewhere — suggests the treaty will have to consider the packaging format.

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When we recorded this interview at the Paris talks, Joshua Baca was vice president of plastics at the American Chemistry Council. A few weeks later he left the ACC, but we decided to keep the interview for its perspective on the negotiations.

Baca talked about the need to expand waste management systems to 3 billion people around the world who don’t have it, improve the “pretty broken” U.S. recycling system and have the treaty recognize the role plastics will play in meeting the U.N.’s sustainable development goals and enabling products that decarbonize the economy.

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Plastic recycling companies see the treaty as a “huge” opportunity to bring change and help struggling plastics recycling markets.

Kate Bailey, the chief policy officer for the Association of Plastic Recyclers in the United States, hopes the treaty can push adoption of extended producer responsibility laws and design for recycling. As well, Bailey said the treaty is moving beyond recycling into plastics and chemical health concerns.

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Matt Seaholm, president and CEO of the Plastics Industry Association in Washington, wants the treaty to have “ambitious yet reasonable” goals and be something that the U.S. government can agree to.

For his association, that means no caps or bans on plastic production and a focus on reducing plastic pollution in the environment. Seaholm also discussed the group’s support for recycled content requirements and why they see it as important that the treaty recognize advanced, or chemical, recycling of plastics.

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Anja Brandon is associate director of U.S. plastics policy with the environmental group Ocean Conservancy.

Their priorities for the treaty include meaningful source reduction of single-use plastics, addressing lost fishing gear and microplastic pollution, and working to have the treaty exclude chemical recycling. Brandon, a former U.S. Senate staffer, discusses how a U.S. president and state governments could move ahead on treaty priorities, if Congress deadlocks.

Ed Shepherd offers the perspective of the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty, which wants the agreement to reduce plastics made from virgin fossil fuels and identify problematic plastics or products that can be eliminated.

The coalition is made up of major consumer brand companies like Unilever, where Shepherd works, as well as financial institutions and some global plastic packaging companies. He argues that the expected growth in virgin plastic production in coming years could make it very hard to meet the objectives of the treaty, without strong action.

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Ben Harp at Polymer Conversions was stumped on rising premium costs for health care for his employees. So he took on the health care industry. And won.

This episode of Plastics News Radio is brought to you by the Caps and Closures Conference in Chicago. For more information, visit http://www.plasticsnews.com/caps