Title: Resolution for the Elimination of Single-Use Plastics

Submitted by The Canadian Group of Liberal International (CGLI)

Congress notes that:

• The global economy generates large amounts of plastic waste each year, with a significant proportion entering the environment as plastic pollution.
• Plastic pollution poses a serious threat to the environment, biodiversity, and human health, affecting oceans, soils, air, and freshwater.
• Single-use plastics, such as plastic bags, bottles, straws, utensils, and food packaging, represent a significant portion of the plastic waste found in the environment and contribute to the accumulation of hazardous microplastics.

Congress believes that:

• It is necessary to take measures to restrict or ban, unless there is no other alternative, the use of non-recyclable and single-use plastics that pose a threat to the environment.
• International commitments made under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 12 on responsible consumption and production and SDG 14 on the conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas, and marine resources, provide a fundamental basis for adopting strong and concerted measures to reduce and eliminate the use of single-use plastics, promote the circular economy, and encourage sustainable alternatives.

Congress calls for:

• Unless there is no other alternative, banning single-use plastics, to further protect the environment for present and future generations and to promote sustainable consumption and production patterns.
• Developing binding international agreements to reduce the production of single-use plastics and to ensure producer responsibility in plastic waste management.
• Accelerating and concluding negotiation rounds aimed at developing an ambitious international treaty against plastic pollution.
• Establishing collaboration between international organizations, governments, and private actors to set global standards on plastic use and to promote regional and global initiatives aimed at reducing plastic pollution.
• Adopting and implementing, at all levels of government, policies and regulations aimed at banning, unless there is no other alternative, or gradually limiting the production, distribution, and consumption of single-use plastics by 2030.
• Developing and adopting environmentally friendly and reusable alternatives to single-use plastics by investing in the innovation and development of sustainable materials.
• Increasing consumer awareness of the negative impacts of single-use plastics and the importance of responsible consumption practices, including recycling and the use of sustainable alternatives.
• Creating economic incentives and subsidies for businesses and communities that adopt practices to reduce single-use plastics and invest in sustainable alternatives.