UN plastics treaty talks end without agreement

Procedural hurdles once again foil progress on a global agreement to end plastic pollution.

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Mass balance in 'recycled' plastic

A convoluted credit system allows companies to label virgin plastic as recycled. Here's how it works.

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Portland's waste pickers

“There’s this stigma that if you’re homeless, then you’re useless. But collecting bottles and cans — it is work."

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'Plastics are awesome'

Inside the Energy Department’s partnership with the plastics industry.

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Plant-based in Japan

In meat- and fish-loving Japan, veganism is making a comeback.

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Trump's inauguration

Trump unravels US climate agenda as he promises to ‘drill, baby, drill’

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The industry's plastics treaty

How to create a ‘world without waste’? Here are the plastic industry’s ideas.

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Paris Agreement Article 6

At COP29, new rules for carbon markets made them even more controversial.

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Definition of recycling

The ‘recycled’ plastic in your shoes, shirts, and bags? It’s still destined for the landfill.

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Coke's reuse target

After 2 years, Coca-Cola’s promise to scale up reusable packaging is dead

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French zero-waste initiatives

In France, zero-waste experiments tackle a tough problem: People’s habits.

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Vegan athletes

Goodbye, ‘soy boys.’ Hello, swole vegans.

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Writing

See all of my reporting for Grist at my author page. My writing has been co-published with ExxonKnews, The Guardian, The Japan Times, Street Roots, and Teen Vogue, and syndicated in many other outlets, including Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Canary Media, Environmental Health News, Fast Company, Gizmodo, Mother Jones, Popular Science, Rolling Stone, Scientific American, Sentient, Slate, Vox, and Yes! Magazine. See below for some selected clips.

Features

  • This Portland collective keeps the city clean — and helps unhoused people find stability (Grist, co-published with Street Roots)
  • The misleading accounting behind your ‘recycled’ plastic (Grist)
  • The ‘recycled’ plastic in your shoes, shirts, and bags? It’s still destined for the landfill. (Grist)
  • ‘Plastics are awesome’: Inside the Energy Department’s partnership with the plastics industry (Grist, co-written with Emily Sanders and co-published with ExxonKnews)
  • How to create a ‘world without waste’? Here are the plastic industry’s ideas. (Grist)
  • In meat- and fish-loving Japan, veganism is making a comeback (Grist, co-written with Sachi Mulkey and co-published in The Japan Times)
  • Goodbye, ‘soy boys.’ Hello, swole vegans. (Grist)
  • In France, zero-waste experiments tackle a tough problem: People’s habits (Grist, co-published in The Guardian and supported by the Heinrich Böll Foundation)
  • What will it take to get companies to embrace reusable packaging? (Grist)

Plastics treaty

Much of my plastics coverage has focused on the U.N. plastics treaty, which member states agreed to negotiate in March 2022. Here's coverage from each round of negotiations:

  • INC-5.2: ‘Consensus kills ambition’: UN plastics treaty talks end without an agreement (Grist), Health was supposed to be central to the UN plastics treaty. Now it’s up for debate. (Grist), Plastic pollution is toxic and everywhere. Now, legal experts say it’s a human rights violation. (Grist), The art of a plastics treaty: How sculptures, collages, and poetry have influenced global talks (Grist), The global plastics crisis explained in 6 charts (Grist), Who's who at the plastics treaty talks, from delegates to lobbyists (Grist), Here's what to watch for at this month's global plastics treaty talks (Grist)
  • INC-5: Over 100 countries want an ambitious plastics treaty. Oil-producing nations are getting in the way. (Grist), At the final round of plastic treaty negotiations, a production cap hangs in the balance (Grist), The US no longer supports capping plastic production in UN treaty (Grist), The US says it now supports a more ambitious plastics treaty. Industry groups are furious. (Grist), Does the plastics industry support waste pickers? It’s complicated. (Grist)
  • INC-4: UN plastics treaty inches closer to reality as lobbyists tout plastics’ ‘massive societal benefits’ (Grist), On the agenda this Earth Day: A global treaty to end plastic pollution (Grist)
  • INC-3: Small victories and major frustrations mark latest round of plastics treaty negotiations (Grist), After a year and a half, negotiators finally have a draft of the global plastics treaty (Grist)
  • INC-2: The global plastics treaty can fight climate change — if it reduces plastic production (Grist), Experts sound the alarm on toxic chemicals ahead of plastic treaty negotiations (Grist)
  • INC-1: The world agreed to a global plastics treaty. Now comes the hard part. (Grist)
  • UNEA-5.2: World agrees to negotiate a 'historic' treaty on plastic pollution (Grist)

More plastics

  • A ‘coordinated campaign of deception’: Philly sues 2 companies over misleading recycling labels (Grist)
  • This Pennsylvania settlement could set the standard for preventing tiny plastic pellet pollution (Grist)
  • This fuel is 50% plastic — and it’s slipping through a loophole in international waste law (Grist)
  • This commonly used plastic chemical caused 350,000 heart disease-related deaths in 1 year (Grist)
  • Exxon is quietly planning a new $8.6 billion plastics plant in Texas (Grist, co-reported with Tik Root)
  • Gavin Newsom delayed his own ‘nation-leading’ plastic policy. Why? (Grist)
  • California sues Exxon Mobil over ‘sham’ of plastics recycling (Grist)
  • ‘Sip, return, repeat’: How this California city is trying to normalize reusable cups (Grist)
  • After 2 years, Coca-Cola’s promise to scale up reusable packaging is dead (Grist)
  • New York’s plastic lawsuit against PepsiCo has been dismissed. What’s next? (Grist)
  • Why some Starbucks locations are switching from plastic to paper cups (Grist)
  • Experts say a proposed revamp to the recycling symbol is still deceptive — and probably illegal (Grist)
  • Does the plastics industry support waste pickers? It’s complicated. (Grist)

Carbon markets

  • At COP29, new rules for carbon markets made them even more controversial (Grist)
  • A federal attempt to foster ‘high-integrity voluntary carbon markets’ falls short, experts say (Grist)
  • Carbon credits are supposed to funnel money to poor countries. Do they? (Grist)
  • A climate pledge verifier said it would allow more carbon offsets. Its staff revolted. (Grist)

Rights of nature

  • In Canada, Indigenous advocates argue that mining companies violate the rights of nature (Grist)
  • What if nature had a voice in legislation? A ‘planetary parliament’ could give it one (Grist)
  • Rights-of-nature victories in Peru, Panama, and India. (Grist)

Policy, lawsuits, and other accountability

  • The Supreme Court just ended its term. Here are the decisions that will affect climate policy. (Grist)
  • ‘Chilling and dangerous’: Grassroots groups sue over Louisiana law that censors air quality data (Grist)
  • Why the shipping industry’s new carbon tax is a big deal — and still not enough (Grist)
  • The world’s biggest youth climate lawsuit lost in court, but it ‘changed the world’ (Grist)
  • Supreme Court declines to hear Republicans’ ‘Hail Mary’ effort to block climate lawsuits (Grist)
  • Trump leaving the Paris Agreement is ‘mostly symbolic.’ What does it actually mean? (Grist)
  • Trump unravels US climate agenda as he promises to ‘drill, baby, drill’ (Grist, co-reported with Naveena Sadasivam)
  • In Seattle, advocacy groups pitch ‘social housing’ as a climate solution (Grist)
  • EPA finalizes the nation’s first PFAS limits in drinking water (Grist, co-reported with Sachi Mulkey)
  • Corporate climate plans are improving, but still ‘critically insufficient’ (Grist)

About / contact

Before Grist, I was an intern at Oregon Public Broadcasting and Living on Earth, as well as senior U.S. editor for the Harvard Political Review. I have a BA in Earth and planetary sciences and environmental science and public policy from Harvard College.

You can email me securely via Proton Mail at jbwinters [at] pm [dot] me.