UN aims to deliver draft plastics treaty by year's end

The fight against global plastic pollution has scored a milestone victory: after five days, 175 countries have agreed to draw up a draft of a future treaty by their next negotiating meeting in Kenya in November. 

The assembly's negotiating committee called for the preparation of the "zero-draft" of a "legally binding instrument" ahead of a third round of talks in Nairobi, with the aim of finalizing the treaty in 2024.

Concern over the impact of plastics on the environment and human wellbeing has surged in recent years along with a crescendo of research documenting its omnipresence and persistence.

Plastic debris is estimated to kill more than a million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals each year, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. 

Filter-feeding blue whales consume up to 10 million pieces of microplastic every day. In humans, microscopic bits of plastic have been detected in blood, breast milk and placentas.