Almost every country in the world has signed up to a legally-binding plan to cut plastic waste – with the US a striking exception.

The United Nations announced that 186 countries reached an agreement on Friday which means they will have to monitor and track movements of plastic waste outside their borders.

Rolph Payet, of the UN Environment Programme, called the amendment to the Basel Convention “historic”.

He said it would help create a better regulated global trade in plastic, which currently clutters pristine land, pollutes the oceans and entangles wildlife – sometimes with deadly results.

“It’s sending a very strong political signal to the rest of the world – to the private sector, to the consumer market – that we need to do something,” said Mr Payet. “Countries have decided to do something which will translate into real action on the ground.”

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A father and son on a makeshift boat made from styrofoam paddle through a garbage filled river as they collect plastic bottles that they can sell in junkshops in Manila. The father and son team earn some three US dollars a day retrieving recyclables from the river. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A composite image of items found on the shore of the Thames Estuary in Rainham, Kent. Tons of plastic and other waste lines areas along the Thames Estuary shoreline, an important feeding ground for wading birds and other marine wildlife. Getty Images Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Children collect plastic water bottles among the garbage washed ashore at the Manila Bay. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, at current rates of pollution, there will likely be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Plastics and other detritus line the shore of the Thames Estuary. In December 2017 Britain joined the other 193 UN countries and signed up to a resolution to help eliminate marine litter and microplastics in the sea. It is estimated that about eight million metric tons of plastic find their way into the world's oceans every year. Once in the Ocean plastic can take hundreds of years to degrade, all the while breaking down into smaller and smaller 'microplastics,' which can be consumed by marine animals, and find their way into the human food chain. Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A dump site in Manila in 2013. The Philippines financial capital banned disposable plastic shopping bags and styrofoam food containers, as part of escalating efforts across the nation's capital to curb rubbish that exacerbates deadly flooding. AFP/Getty Images Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Children swims in the sea full of garbage in North Jakarta, Indonesia. Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures An Indian woman holds a jar filled with Yamuna river water polluted with froth and toxic foam to be used for rituals at the river bank in New Delhi, India. The Yamuna River, like all other holy rivers in India, has been massively polluted for decades now. The river that originates in a glacier in the pristine and unpolluted Himalayas, and flows through Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh before merging with the Ganges River in Allahabad, once used to be the lifeline of the Indian capital. Currently, it is no more than a large, open sewer that is choking with industrial and domestic discharge that includes plastic, flowers and debris and has virtually no aquatic life. EPA Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Plastic waste is washed up on South Troon beach in Scotland. Recent reports by scientists have confirmed, plastics dumped in the world oceans are reaching a dangerous level with micro plastic particles now being found inside filter feeding animals and amongst sand grains on our beaches. Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Children collect plastic to be sold and recycled, in a polluted river in suburban Manila. The city's trash disposal agency traps solid waste floating down waterways that was thrown into the water by residents of slums along riverbanks upstream. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures View of the Carpayo Beach in La Punta, Callao, some 15 km of Lima. In 2013, the NGO VIDA labeled the Carpayo Beach as the most polluted in the country - 40 tons of trash on each 500m2. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Trash from Kamilo Beach in Hawaii. Gabriella Levine/Flickr Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A scavenger collects plastic cups for recycling in a river covered with rubbish near Pluit dam in Jakarta. Reuters Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Rubbish fills Omoa beach in Honduras. Floating masses of garbage offshore from some of the Caribbean's pristine beaches are testimony to a vast and growing problem of plastic pollution heedlessly dumped in our oceans, locals, activists and experts say. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A man climbs down to a garbage filled river in Manila. Plastic rubbish will outweigh fish in the oceans by 2050 unless the world takes drastic action to recycle the material, a report warned in 2016. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Garbage on East Beach, Henderson Island (Pitcairn Islands), in the south Pacific Ocean. The uninhabited island has been found to have the world's highest density of waste plastic, with more than 3,500 additional pieces of litter washing ashore daily at just one of its beaches. EPA

The deal affects products used in a broad array of industries, such as healthcare, technology, aerospace, fashion, and food and beverages.

The agreement is likely to lead to customs agents being on the lookout for electronic or other types of potentially hazardous waste more than before.

Countries will have to figure out their own ways of adhering to the accord, Mr Payet said. Even the few non-signatory countries, like the US, could be affected when they ship plastic waste to countries that have signed up.

Plastic litter in oceans has significantly increased since 1990s study says

Mr Payet credited Norway for leading the initiative, which first was presented in September. The time from then to approval was extremely quick by traditional UN standards.

The framework “is historic in the sense that it is legally binding,” Mr Payet said. “They [the countries] have managed to use an existing international instrument to put in place those measures.”

“There is going to be a transparent and traceable system for export and import of plastic waste,” Mr Payet said.

Paul Rose, expedition leader for the National Geographic Pristine Seas Expeditions, said he believed changing public opinion worldwide about plastic pollution had played a positive role in the negotiations.

“It was those iconic images of the dead albatross chicks on the Pacific Islands with their stomachs open and all recognisable plastic items inside it, and most recently, it’s been when we discovered the nano-particles do cross the blood-brain barrier, and we were able to prove that plastic is in us,” Rose said.

An online petition entitled “Stop dumping plastic in paradise!” has attracted almost a million signatures in the past week.

According to the UN, plastic pollution has reached epidemic proportions with an estimated 100 million tonnes of plastic now found in the oceans. Between 80 and 90 per cent of it comes from land-based sources.