Demands:

We urge the  Indian government  to strongly advocate for the INC5.2: 

• Prioritising human health and demanding a standalone health article (provision) in the Global Plastics Treaty (GPT).
• Prioritising research into plastic alternatives that do not threaten public health.
• Eliminating chemicals of concern used in manufacturing plastics
• Capping the production of primary plastic polymers
• Rejecting false solutions like Waste-to-Energy (WTE) incinerators

Background

The ongoing plastic crisis makes it urgent for all countries to take combined action, and the key to the success of tackling plastic pollution is a global regulation to curb plastic pollution. In March 2022, a resolution was adopted at the UN Environmental Assembly to develop an international, legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment. The resolution requested the UNEP to convene an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to develop the instrument that addresses the full life cycle of plastic, starting from production, design, to disposal.

Five INC sessions later, the second part of the fifth negotiation is planned from the 5th to the 14th of August 2025. Despite the global push for lifecycle approaches, India, a significant player in the petrochemical industry, actively limits the Treaty's scope to downstream measures only. This fails to address the underlying cause, which is the unregulated production of plastics (of which 50% are single-use), which overburdens waste systems and contributes to pollution and risks to public health, from production to use and disposal as waste. Even worse, waste-to-energy incineration, which releases toxins and microplastics, is one of the false solutions that India promotes.

The pollution from plastics begins during its extraction and manufacturing, and not only when it becomes waste after its consumption. Due to indiscriminate use of plastics, over 4,200 plastic chemicals of concern contaminate our bodies, food, and ecosystems. Microplastics have infiltrated human blood, placentas, and organs, while toxic emissions from production, incineration, and recycling poison frontline communities. Yet India’s current push for downstream-only measures ignores that 90% of plastic's GHG emissions originate from design and production stages.

Therefore, we, the citizens of India, urgently call on our delegation to champion a strong Global Plastics Treaty centred on human health and upstream solutions at the upcoming INC-5.2 negotiations.