Groups say they’re shut out of global treaty talks on plastics pollution in Bangkok

Associated Press

Experts meet in Bangkok this week to advance what would be the first international treaty to tackle the surging problem of plastic pollution. Final treaty negotiations take place in South Korea in November. Yet most of the people who have been closely tracking the negotiations — environmentalists, tribal leaders and residents from communities hard-hit by plastic production and waste — are shut out of these talks in Bangkok. Many plastic industry representatives say they can’t get into the room either. In a series of letters to the United Nations Environment Programme, hundreds of organizations said the closure runs counter to typical international environmental treaty-making. A U.N. official says she’s not authorized to let people in.