Cap on plastic production may be too complicated: Guilbeault [Video]

OTTAWA –

A global treaty to end plastic waste can be ambitious and successful without firm caps on plastic production, which are hard to design and harder to get agreement on, Canada’s environment minister said Friday.

Negotiators from 175 nations are in Ottawa trying to solidify some of the details of such a treaty, which is supposed to be finalized this fall in Korea.

A cap on plastics is among the most contentious items on the table.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said there’s a need for some limits on plastics, including bans on certain single-use plastics and the most toxic chemicals used to make them. And he said Canada is “not opposed to the concept of a production cut.”

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“I’m just not sure how we would do it,” he said in an interview. “And I think there are other ways of achieving a goal like that without going through what could be …