Tackling Plastics Pollution : Towards Experience-Based Policy Guidance

The growth and impacts of plastic pollution have emerged as a major environmental challenge globally. Plastic pollution has a wide range of impacts on public health, ecosystems, biodiversity, and economies and can occur during each stage of the plastic lifecycle, from extraction of raw materials, production and use through to end-of-life. Many countries have started to implement policies to manage plastic pollution and its impact, but as yet there is little evidence about their effectiveness or guidance on their application. The purpose of this report is to review the experiences and lessons learned from the development and implementation of policies to manage plastic pollution and provide evidence-based policy guidance. The structure of this report is as follows. Following the Introduction, Chapter 2 provides an overview of plastics and their uses and impacts, entry points for plastic pollution control, and the basics of plastics policies. Chapter 3 examines the experience and lessons learned from policy making and implementation in the set of country case studies, supplemented by information from relevant literature. It identifies what policy aspects have worked and which were less effective or missing across the design, implementation, enforcement, monitoring, reporting and evaluation of policies. Chapter 4 summarizes key issues regarding plastics policies and concludes with considerations for the guidance of a successful policy design and implementation process to manage plastic pollution