International brands including Coca Cola and PepsiCo called for a global pact to combat plastic pollution that includes cuts in plastic production, a key growth area for the oil industry.
World officials will meet at the UN Environment Assembly conference on UNEA 5.2 later this year to discuss a treaty to tackle a plastic waste crisis that is killing wildlife, choking landfills and despoiling oceans.
It is not known whether a deal will focus on waste management and recycling or take tougher measures such as curbing new plastic production, a move that would likely face resistance from big oil and chemical firms and major plastic-producing countries like the United States.
More than 70 signatories to Monday's joint statement include consumer goods companies like Unilever and Nestle, which sell a myriad of products in single-use plastic, from shampoo to chocolate bars, as well as retailer Walmart and French bank BNP Paribas.
The statement said that any deal should reduce virgin plastic production and use, because we are at a critical point in time to establish an ambitious U.N. treaty. UNEA 5.2 is the decisive moment to change the tide on the global plastic pollution crisis. The statement said that we can't afford to miss it.
Less than 10% of the plastics industry's waste is recycled, and a Reuters investigation last year revealed that new recycling technologies touted by the plastics industry have struggled to combat the problem.
In the next 20 years, the production of plastic is projected to double, based on oil and gas. This is a key source of future revenue for energy majors as demand for fossil fuels wanes with the rise of renewable energy and electric vehicles.
The study conducted by Pew Charitable Trusts in 2020 found that scaling up global recycling is critical in tackling plastic waste, but these efforts will not prevent plastic pollution from skyrocket without constraints on production.
As pressure mounts on companies that sell products in hard-to-recycle plastic to tackle the resulting waste, some have teamed up with cement makers to burn plastic waste as cheap fuel in the developing world, according to a Reuters investigation last year.