Labubu is blowing up hopes of a plastics halt

THE world’s governments are meeting this week to hammer out a treaty to reverse the rising tide of plastics. Oil companies have other ideas.

Far from cutting back their spending, refiners are planning to drown the noble ambitions of United Nations negotiators meeting in Geneva beneath a tsunami of polymers.

That freaky-cute Labubu doll you just bought (made largely of polyester and polyvinyl chloride) and the bento meal you got delivered in four separate containers (polypropylene and polyethylene) are evidence that we need to work a lot harder to break our plastics habit.