The meeting was the last stage in a two-year process, after more than 170 nations in March 2022 backed a historic UN resolution to end plastic pollution.

During the late-night meeting, countries supportive of legal obligations to cut plastic pollution refused to accept a treaty limited to voluntary measures. The treaty must take action at each stage of a plastic item’s life cycle, they asserted. That includes reducing how much plastic is made.

Diplomats at a United Nations conference in Busan, South Korea, failed to reach agreement on the world’s first treaty to tackle plastic pollution on Sunday. They said they would reconvene in future months to try again.

Very little of the world's plastic waste—about half of which comes from single-use plastics such as packaging, straws and disposable utensils—is recycled. Just 9% of the 353 million tons of plastic discarded in 2019 was recycled.

A summit many hoped would yield a landmark treaty to tackle a global plastic pollution crisis ended in disappointment after oil- and gas-producing countries pushed back on limiting production

Delegates from more than 170 countries are working to salvage a treaty that would tackle the growing problem of plastic pollution.

The negotiations in Busan, South Korea, were supposed to be the fifth and final round to produce the first legally binding treaty on plastics pollution, including in the oceans, by the end of 2024.

Countries have failed to reach an agreement to stem plastic pollution after a small number of oil-rich nations resisted efforts to limit production.

Oil-producing countries were reportedly the key obstacle to finding common ground at the gathering in South Korea.