Plastics pollution may be solved without production cap — Canada minister

Speaking on the sidelines of negotiations in Ottawa on a global treaty to reduce plastic pollution, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said there are "a lot of things" being proposed "that could ensure that this is an ambitious treaty, whether or not there is a production cap."

He pointed to the need to ban some single use plastics and doing better in areas of recycling, as examples.

"There's no silver bullet here to fight plastic pollution," he added, urging delegates to consider "the entire picture of where we need to tackle plastic pollution at every step of the way."

Greenpeace's Patrick Bonin reacted by accusing the minister of "undermining" efforts to negotiate a plastic production cap.

"Questioning the validity of a cap on plastic production is out of step with the High Ambition Coalition of which Canada is a part, with what people and scientists are asking for," he said in a statement.

Negotiators from 175 countries are meeting to nail down a world-first UN treaty to address the scourge of plastics found everywhere from mountaintops to ocean depths, and in human blood and breast milk.

Plastics producers are pushing for more recycling while environmentalists want cuts to the volume of plastic produced, as annual production has more than doubled in 20 years to 460 million metric tons, and is on track to triple within four decades.

The meeting in Ottawa is considered crucial as it is the penultimate session before a final round of negotiations in South Korea in November.

Guilbeault said he is confident a deal will be reached by year's end.

He added that "we are making progress on streamlining the text" of a draft agreement but "nothing has been agreed to yet" and there is "still a lot of work to be done."

The Ottawa talks are scheduled to continue through April 29.