| Abstract |
In 2022 the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) adopted resolution 5/14 for the preparation, by 2024, of the draft for a new international treaty against plastic, which should be the first convention on the full life cycle of plastics with the declared objective of putting an end to the pollution they cause. To try to achieve this difficult result, the future agreement will build on the experience accumulated over the last 40 years, taking advantage of the international legal framework that, directly or indirectly, regulates the issue. However, relying on existing international legal instruments will not be enough to achieve the ambitious goal that the new treaty proposes. The article, after analysing the international treaties that have an impact on plastic pollution, suggests that the future convention should include an explicit reference to the due diligence standard and the precautionary and preventive principles that derive from it. These could serve as incentives for States to do everything in their power to progressively reduce and, ideally, eliminate the ever-increasing production of unnecessary plastics, i.e. the insurmountable obstacle to achieving a true circular economy also for plastic products. |