Geneva, August 5 to 14, 2025
The second part of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-5.2), is scheduled to take place from 5 to 14 August 2025 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
Plastics Treaty Resources
For each negotiating session, IPEN develops policy documents on the meeting agenda and emerging issues, as well as briefing papers, reports, and other materials.
Our Quick Views will be available soon in several languages.
Plastics Treaty Scorecard
IPEN’s Plastics Treaty Scorecard evaluates the Chair’s current draft treaty text from December 1, 2024, that was developed following the fifth round of negotiations against IPEN’s 17 key criteria for protecting human health from plastics and plastic-related chemicals. The findings are clear: the draft treaty text does not go far enough to safeguard health.
IPEN's Global Actions to End Toxic Plastics
Our Health, Our Voices: The Case for Public Participation in Multilateral Environmental Governance Forums
In recent years, the participation of civil society in international decision-making has been constrained, raising concerns about inclusivity and transparency. Despite being key stakeholders, civil society organizations (CSOs), Indigenous Peoples, and representatives from affected communities have been sidelined in forums that shape critical policies. This IPEN briefing describes why public participation in decisions that affect human health and the environment is essential in a democracy and is crucial to ensure individuals’ right to engage in decision-making processes that impact their lives.
The Plastic Industry's Muddled Math
Increasing plastic recycling has been presented as a solution to the plastic crisis, but the projected recycling numbers are often based on false assumptions and misleading statistics. These are often intentionally presented to oversell the capacity and promise of plastic recycling.
In this research brief, we summarize the science on the limitations of plastic recycling and the skewed statistics that are often used to oversell its potential.
A Small Slice of the Toxic Pie
Plastics are chemicals, and of the over 16,000 chemicals linked to plastics, less than 1% are regulated worldwide throughout their full life cycles. Yet, the non-paper containing compromise text suggestions, proposed by the Chair of the negotiation process, suggests that plastic chemicals could effectively be regulated as “chemicals in plastic products” even though toxic plastic chemicals can be released during production, use, and disposal, not only during the product stage.
This brief explains why narrowly focusing on the plastic product stage would fail to address the broader environmental and health impacts associated with plastics throughout their entire life cycle.
The Endocrine Society and IPEN provide a comprehensive update on the science of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), which may be particularly harmful during the fetal and infant stages. The report examines bisphenols and phthalates, two toxic chemical groups found in many plastics, and includes a special feature highlighting EDC exposures throughout the plastic life cycle.
Children's Health Threats from Plastic Chemicals
Project TENDR, an alliance of 50+ leading scientists, health professionals, and advocates, share a briefing for delegates outlining how common exposures to plastic and its toxic chemicals are harming children’s brain development. They summarize the scientific evidence and offer policy recommendations to strengthen the Plastics Treaty to protect children’s health.
Troubling Toxics: Eliminating Harmful Plastic Chemicals Through the Plastics Treaty
The IPEN briefing Troubling Toxics discusses approaches in the Plastics Treaty to establish criteria for a negative list of toxic chemicals associated with the production, use, and disposal of plastics. IPEN calls for a strategy that combines a negative list of toxic chemicals to eliminate from plastics with an approach that prohibits marketing chemicals when there is no available toxicity data.
