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A policy blueprint for scaling plastic alternatives in Global South contexts
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Plastic pollution hits poorer countries especially hard, but many nations struggle to roll out safer alternatives to plastic because of weak enforcement, limited funding, and disconnected policies. Using Ghana as a test case, researchers created a practical six-part roadmap—covering things like incentives, regulations, and public education—to help governments and businesses actually scale up plastic substitutes. This matters because less plastic waste means less of it breaking down into microplastics that end up in our water, food, and eventually our bodies, so smarter policy could translate into real reductions in human exposure over time.
Abstract Plastic pollution has emerged as a defining socio-environmental challenge of the twenty-first century, with its most severe impacts felt in the Global South. While alternatives to conventional plastics are increasingly promoted, policy responses in low- and middle-income countries remain fragmented, under-enforced, and poorly aligned with local realities. This paper introduces a novel policy blueprint matrix, an evidence-based framework that can help accelerate the adoption and production of plastic alternatives and non-plastic substitutes in a Global South context. For the purposes of this paper, the term Global South is used as a heuristic rather than a fixed geographic category. It refers primarily to low–and lower-middle-income contexts that often face overlapping structural constraints such as high informality, fragmented institutional coordination, constrained enforcement capacity, limited testing and standards infrastructure, and fiscal or industrial barriers to scaling plastic alternatives and non-plastic substitutes. Developed through a case study and co-creation process in Ghana, the blueprint integrates six interdependent pillars: stakeholder networks, economic incentives, regulatory standards, public awareness and behavioural change, research and development, and monitoring and compliance. While rooted in a Ghanaian experience, the matrix has been designed as a transferable tool across the Global South. The paper’s originality and significance lie in its presentation of a policy blueprint matrix which can serve as a practical roadmap for advancing the adoption of plastic alternative and non-plastic substitutes in Global South contexts. It advances scholarship and practice by translating applied policy research into a structured framework that can guide governments, industry and civil society. The paper makes two primary contributions. First, it provides the policy blueprint as a coherent governance framework for enhancing the production and uptake of plastic alternatives. Secondly, it seeks to contribute to the scholarly discourse while also offering a practical framework that may help inform efforts to reduce plastic dependence in the Global South.
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