The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
May 13, 2019

187 Countries, Not Including the U.S., Agree to Landmark Deal Curbing Plastic Waste
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In environmental news, nearly all the countries in the world have agreed
to curb plastic waste-except the United States. In a landmark agreement,
187 governments agreed to add plastic to the Basel Convention, a treaty
that regulates the movement of hazardous materials between countries.
The U.S. was not involved in the negotiations because it is one of just
two countries that has not signed the treaty. The amended treaty will
make it more difficult for rich countries to send their plastic waste to
poorer nations. The U.N. estimates there are 100 million tons of plastic
waste in the world's oceans. This is the U.N.'s Rolph Payet.

Rolph Payet: "Plastics is everywhere. We need authorities to solve this.
It cannot be the responsibility of one country, it has to be all the
countries of the world, all consumers. All organizations have to come
together including the private sector and plastics producers. We have to
come together for us to find a solution."



.