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IN JUNE 2021, the government of the Seychelles decided it was time to stamp out what it had come to see as a dangerous recreational substance: balloon latex. Too many people were taking balloons to the beach and the popped remains were finding their way into the ocean to be swallowed by turtles. The government had already banned most other single-use plastic items, including straws, bags, eating utensils and cups. The warning that, in the Seychelles at least, the party is over.

The country’s war on plastic was inspired in part by its stewardship of Aldabra, a large coral atoll 1120 kilometres south-west of the main island Mahé. Nobody lives there apart from a dozen or so scientists. Visitor numbers are restricted to a few hundred day trippers per year. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and a strict nature reserve. And still it has a major plastic pollution problem. “We removed thousands of tonnes of plastic from the atoll,” Seychelles president Wavel Ramkalawan told the recent .

There was much discussion of the pervasive plastics problem at the summit, which was convened by President Emmanuel Macron of France – the of its . “It’s a high-level summit with the presence of heads of state,” said marine ecologist , a National Geographic explorer in residence, ahead of the meeting. And things happen at heads-of-state summits.”

Things did happen. As at last year’s COP26 conference in Glasgow, world leaders fell over themselves to make promises about ocean conservation and sustainable development. With both meetings, it remains to be seen whether these lofty words will translate into action. But on plastic pollution, the action has already begun. “We are now seeing growing backing for a strong, comprehensive, source-to-sea global agreement,” says Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme.

The outline of such an agreement is already on the table. This month, I am packing my virtual bags for Nairobi, Kenya, to cover the , the world’s most powerful decision-making body on environmental action. On the agenda is a resolution to begin negotiations on a global plastic pollution treaty, which, if successful, would drastically cut manufacture and disposal of plastics and create a “booming” circular plastics economy. More than 150 countries have “expressed interest” in negotiating an agreement, says Andersen.

“Only a fool or a knave would deny that we have a major plastic pollution problem. But there are plenty of both”

As Greta Thunberg would probably respond: blah, blah, blah. Agreeing a resolution to begin negotiations certainly appears to leave plenty of room for that. But John Kerry, the US special presidential envoy for climate, said in Brest that he hoped a deal would be finalised at the next round of climate talks in Egypt in November, and .

Only a fool or a knave would deny that we have a major plastic pollution problem. Unfortunately, there are plenty of both. By November, the Republicans, whose record on the environment leaves a lot to be desired, may well be back in charge of the US Congress. Kerry acknowledged in Brest that attempts to negotiate a treaty will provoke a backlash from “powerful vested interests that push back against change, that want to ignore science even, let alone common sense”, saying that “we are prisoners to some degree of the status quo”.

To be fair to the plastics industry, more than 80 senior executives have said they want a treaty, according to Andersen, and there is growing recognition that rules need to be imposed. “It’s clear that ,” says Richard Slater, Unilever’s executive director of R&D and head of the company’s plastic pollution response. But at the same time, the oil and gas industry knows that making plastics from its products will keep the cash machine paying out as demand for fossil fuels dwindles. Plastic production is expected to double in the next 20 years, according to Virginijus Sinkevičius, European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries.

What often gets lost in the debate over plastics is that we can have the best of both worlds: ban single-use items and build a circular economy for the plastics we actually need. “Plastics are not inherently bad, it’s how we use them – or rather misuse them – that causes so many problems,” says Andersen. We will have to let go of frivolous, throwaway items like party balloons, but the future of plastic can still be fantastic.