The World's Plastic Negotiators Are Coming to Bangkok. Here's Why That Matters at Your Bar.

From 27 to 30 September 2026, heads of delegation from around the world will meet informally at the UN Conference Centre in Bangkok to try to revive the global plastics treaty. The last full round, in Geneva in 2025, ended without an agreement.

The sticking point has not changed: whether the treaty should limit the production of new plastic. The chair's latest "Aid to Negotiations" document, published in August, contains no production cap, and environmental groups have called it weaker than earlier drafts. The next formal negotiating round is expected around March 2027.

Nobody can say what Bangkok will unlock. What tends to happen, though, is that when a meeting like this lands in a city, local media, NGOs and guests start looking harder at the plastic in front of them. The straw is usually the first thing they see.

Thailand is not waiting for a treaty

The national Plastic Waste Management Roadmap 2018 to 2030 targets the phase-out of several single-use plastic items, including straws, and aims to bring 100 percent of targeted plastic waste back into use by 2027. That deadline is now less than eighteen months away.

For hotels, restaurants and cafes the question is no longer whether to switch, but what to switch to without annoying guests. Paper straws solve one problem and create another: they go soft before the drink is finished.

RECO sugarcane straws are made from bagasse left over from sugar milling, blended with plant-based bioplastic fibre. They stay firm in the glass and bend without snapping. Every straw is individually wrapped in paper at the factory.