What was supposed to be the final round of negotiations for a legally binding global treaty to end plastic pollution has failed to reach a consensus.

After delegates spent 10 days in Geneva, Switzerland, trying to address plastic pollution, the session was adjourned, with no immediate plans to resume efforts to reach a treaty.

The World Wildlife Fund called on ambitious states to pursue a separate deal, with the hope of getting plastics-producing nations on board later.

"Consensus is dead, it's clear that it's not working," Björn Beeler, the international co-ordinator for the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), told CBC News.

This was the sixth time countries had convened as part of the UN Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee, which was supposed to come to an agreement by 2024.

Representatives from 183 countries and 400 organizations showed up, and the stakes were high.

Around 7,250 megatonnes of plastic pollute the planet, according to The Lancet Countdown on health and plastics, which was published in Health Policy earlier this month. And plastic production is on course to triple by 2060.

Anthony Merante, senior plastics campaigner for non-profit organization Oceana Canada, says imposing limits on plastics production was at the heart of the disagreement.

"It is unfortunate that some of the largest countries in the world want to stand on the path that leads us to making more plastic and to continuing the pollution crisis that we have," he told CBC News from Geneva on Friday. "But we're happy to see Canada stand on the right side of this."

Flawed process, say attendees

Consensus decision-making paralyzed the talks, Erin Simon, an expert on plastics and packaging at the World Wildlife Fund, told The Associated Press back in December.

Consensus means that every nation must agree for there to be a legally binding treaty.

"Each country has a veto card," said Simon. "They have no incentive to come up with a plan and we've seen that time and time again in these negotiations."

At negotiations in Busan, South Korea, in December 2024, Saudi Arabia, Russia, India and other countries that produce plastics and oil and gas pushed for a treaty focused on better waste management and recycling — not plastic production caps. This remained the case in Geneva.

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"Issues like production are very, very hard to move," IPEN's Beeler told CBC News on Monday, halfway through the negotiations. IPEN is a global network of more than 600 organizations in 131 countries that conducts research to help influence global policy.

"It's clear [many plastic-producing countries] do not want a treaty. It's clear the only thing that they would tolerate would be an agreement that addresses plastic waste management, and even there, they're difficult,"said Beeler.

Beeler says a focus on waste management and recycling pushes the responsibility onto the general public.

Big divide on certain topics

Production limits and ways to address chemicals used in plastic products were removed from a draft of the treaty presented on Wednesday, which was supposed to be the second-to-last day of negotiations. 

When the countries reconvened Wednesday night, Colombia's delegation said it wouldn't accept the new draft as the basis for negotiations, calling the text unbalanced and lacking the ambition and global obligations needed to end plastic pollution.

Canada and many other delegations agreed — including Panama, Mexico, Chile, Ghana, Norway, the United Kingdom, the European Union and the group of small island developing states. They are all part of the High Ambition Coalition, a group of ambitious countries committed to ending plastic pollution by 2040.

"Let me be clear — this is not acceptable for future generations," said Erin Silsbe from Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Fiji delegate Sivendra Michael said it would be like "mopping the floor without turning off the tap."

Almost 100 countries wanted to limit plastic production, as well as tackle waste cleanup and recycling. Instead, the draft of the treaty centered on the redesign of plastic products so they can be recycled and reused, and improving waste management. 

It also didn't impose global, legally binding rules, instead asking nations to make their own commitments to ending plastic pollution.

What this means for Canadians

Canada had been part of the High Ambition Coalition to end plastic pollution since its inauguration in 2022.

"Plastic pollution knows no borders, global rules are essential to protect ecosystems, coastal and Indigenous communities, and to address transboundary threats," Kennan Nembhard, a press secretary with Environment and Climate Change Canada, told CBC News in a statement on Thursday.

Canada generates 4.7 million tonnes of plastic waste per year and only recycles about eight per cent, according to Oceana Canada.

"If you want to fight plastic pollution effectively, you need to do so at the source, because we've been making plastic for over five decades now and recycling has never hit double-digits efficiency numbers," said Merante from Oceana Canada.

"We have seen plastic wash up on our shores, fill our oceans, fill the stomachs of wildlife like whales and seabirds and dolphins. We have seen the devastating effects of this and now we're learning the human health effects of this."

Merante says that without a treaty, there aren't clear next steps for Canadians. He hopes the government will pass new legislation to provide some guidance, but says businesses need to be on board for things to change.