While plastics are extremely useful materials for modern society, plastics production and waste generation continue to increase with worsening environmental impacts despite international, national and local policy responses, as well as industry commitments. The first of two reports, this Outlook intends to inform and support policy efforts to combat plastic leakage.
While plastics are extremely useful materials for modern society, plastics production and waste generation continue to increase with worsening environmental impacts despite international, national and local policy responses, as well as industry commitments. The urgent need to make the lifecycle of plastics more circular calls for an expansion of national policies and improved international co-operation to mitigate environmental impacts all along the value chain. The first of two reports, this Outlook intends to inform and support policy efforts to combat plastic leakage. The report quantifies the current production, use, disposal and key environmental impacts throughout the entire plastics lifecycle and identifies opportunities for reducing the negative externalities. It also investigates how plastics use and waste have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic across sectors and regions. The Outlook identifies four key levers for bending the plastics curve: stronger support for recycled (secondary) plastics markets; policies to boost technological innovation in plastics; more ambitious domestic policy measures; and greater international co-operation.
While plastics are extremely useful materials for modern society, plastics production and waste generation continue to increase with worsening environmental impacts despite international, national and local policy responses, as well as industry commitments. The urgent need to make the lifecycle of plastics more circular calls for an expansion of national policies and improved international co-operation to mitigate environmental impacts all along the value chain. The first of two reports, this Outlook intends to inform and support policy efforts to combat plastic leakage. The report quantifies the current production, use, disposal and key environmental impacts throughout the entire plastics lifecycle and identifies opportunities for reducing the negative externalities. It also investigates how plastics use and waste have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic across sectors and regions. The Outlook identifies four key levers for bending the plastics curve: stronger support for recycled (secondary) plastics markets; policies to boost technological innovation in plastics; more ambitious domestic policy measures; and greater international co-operation.
The global community is far from achieving its objective of ending plastic pollution, unless more stringent and co-ordinated policies are implemented. A key question is: What are the plausible scenarios for the evolution of plastics in the absence of additional measures and, as well, with scaled-up policy action?
The global community is far from achieving its objective of ending plastic pollution, unless more stringent and co-ordinated policies are implemented. A key question is: What are the plausible scenarios for the evolution of plastics in the absence of additional measures and, as well, with scaled-up policy action? The Global Plastics Outlook: Policy Scenarios to 2060 provides such a forward-looking perspective. The report presents a set of coherent projections on plastics to 2060, including plastics use, waste as well as the environmental impacts linked to plastics, especially leakage to the environment. Such an outlook on plastics can help policy makers understand the scale of the challenge to transition to a more sustainable and circular use of plastics and the need for additional policy action. By identifying two policy packages to bend the plastic curve, the Outlook allows for a better understanding of the environmental benefits and economic consequences of adopting stringent policies. This second report is a follow-up to the first report - Global Plastics Outlook: Economic Drivers, Environmental Impacts and Policy Options - which quantified current trends in plastics use, waste generation and leakage, as well as identified four policy levers to curb the environmental impacts of plastics.
The OECD Global Plastics Outlook database intends to inform and support ongoing policy efforts to mitigate adverse environmental impacts arising along the value chain of plastics. The database includes data from 1990 to 2019 covering the full lifecylce of plastics, from the use of plastic materials by polymer and application to the generation of plastic waste and finally the leakage of plastic waste into the environment.
Microplastics are ubiquitous in the natural environment. This report synthesises the current state of knowledge on the sources, fate and risks of microplastics pollution. It then focuses on two sources of microplastics pollution, textile products and vehicle tyres, due to their substantial contribution to global microplastics emissions and currently largely absent policy frameworks to mitigate them.
Plastic Waste and Recycling: Environmental Impact, Societal Issues, Prevention, and Solutions begins with an introduction to the different types of plastic materials, their uses, and the concepts of reduce, reuse and recycle before examining plastic types, chemistry and degradation patterns that are organized by non-degradable plastic, degradable and biodegradable plastics, biopolymers and bioplastics. Other sections cover current challenges relating to plastic waste, explain the sources of waste and their routes into the environment, and provide systematic coverage of plastic waste treatment methods, including mechanical processing, monomerization, blast furnace feedstocks, gasification, thermal recycling, and conversion to fuel. This is an essential guide for anyone involved in plastic waste or recycling, including researchers and advanced students across plastics engineering, polymer science, polymer chemistry, environmental science, and sustainable materials. Presents actionable solutions for reducing plastic waste, with a focus on the concepts of collection, re-use, recycling and replacement Considers major societal and environmental issues, providing the reader with a broader understanding and supporting effective implementation Includes detailed case studies from across the globe, offering unique insights into different solutions and approaches
