The move underlines its desire to keep the treaty's focus on the efforts of individual countries in a model similar to the 2015 Paris climate accord, rather than provide new universal rules favoured by other major countries, according to six government and civil society sources involved in the talks.
United Nations members agreed in February to create the world's first treaty to tackle the scourge of plastic waste which extends from ocean trenches to mountain tops, with the aim of finalising it by the end of 2024.
In August, 20 countries including the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany and several developing countries at the sharp end of the environmental crisis formed a "High Ambition Coalition To End Plastic Pollution" advocating for the treaty to include global standards, bans and restrictions on plastic.
Now, the United States is seeking to form its own group with a different approach, and has invited several countries to join including Australia and Japan, the sources said.
A concept note for its coalition seen by Reuters says "the development of national action plans" should be "the primary mechanism" for countries to contribute to the treaty, an approach environmentalists say will not be robust enough to curb the runaway problem.
The US-led coalition aims to launch at or before the first round of treaty negotiations scheduled to take place in Uruguay from November 28 to December 2, the draft document says.
The State Department did not directly answer questions about the proposed coalition.
In an emailed statement, Monica Medina, the US official leading its treaty negotiations, said the country was committed to ending plastic pollution by 2040.
"The best way is through a Paris-like agreement that helps countries take ambitious action and holds them accountable, let's them be innovative on finding solutions, and leads to action now and not later," she said.
The United States was a key architect of the country-driven approach of the Paris agreement, a landmark international deal to limit global warming to at least 2C.
But that deal has faced criticism for having no enforcement mechanism as countries have missed deadlines to ratchet up their climate actions.
Japan's vice minister for global environmental affairs, Hiroshi Ono, said he knew of a proposed coalition on plastic involving the US but declined further comment.
Australia's environment department said in a statement it was aware of different coalitions forming, without elaborating.
