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Banning Plastic
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This legal article argues that outright bans on single-use plastics are the most effective policy tool for reducing plastic pollution, examining how local, state, and national bans create regulatory tipping points. While not a field study, it is directly relevant to the microplastics problem because fewer plastic products entering the environment means less feedstock for the microplastic particles that contaminate ecosystems and human food chains.
The disgusting nature of plastic pollution has finally captured the attention of policymakers and driven legal change. Local, state, and national bans on various plastic consumer items coupled with voluntary industry switching creates momentum toward a full-scale end to unnecessary plastic products. Bans have the capacity to create an important tipping point. This Article extolls the effectiveness of consumer bans and explores the challenges to achieving this highest level of environmental control. Plastic is essentially pure petroleum.1 Its persistence and destructiveness in the environment presents unique reasons to eliminate its use altogether. Plastics should only be used for essential products for which we have no replacements. The evidence is clear that banning single-use plastic products achieves environmental protection with negligible impact on consumers. The harm caused along the full lifecycle of plastic requires an appropriate regulatory response. This Article argues for a ban of non-essential plastics to address the scope and scale of plastic pollution facing the world today.
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Addressing the single-use plastic proliferation problem
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This review examined the effectiveness of single-use plastic bans as a policy tool for addressing plastic pollution, evaluating evidence on their environmental impact and discussing alternative regulatory approaches. The authors found that while bans have reduced certain plastic categories, broader systemic changes to plastic production and waste management are needed.
Management strategies for single-use plastics: lessons to learn from Indian approach of minimizing microplastic waste
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A review of India's experience with banning single-use plastics identified key lessons for effective policy design, including enforcement challenges and the importance of viable alternatives. The authors argue that managing single-use plastic waste is essential for reducing downstream microplastic pollution.
Preventing single-use plastic waste
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This policy chapter reviews strategies for preventing single-use plastic waste, covering bans, fees, deposit-return schemes, and extended producer responsibility programs. Single-use plastics account for approximately half of all plastic waste and are a major source of environmental microplastic contamination. The chapter evaluates the effectiveness and design of different policy instruments for reducing single-use plastic consumption.
Regulatory Approaches to Plastic Mitigation
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This chapter reviews existing research and policies on plastic pollution, including microplastics, at local, national, and global levels. It examines rules targeting single-use plastics and waste management, finding gaps in how these policies are put into practice and enforced, and calls for stronger coordinated legislative action.
Laws, Regulations or Policy Tools to Govern Macroplastics, Mesoplastics, Microplastics and Nanoplastics
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This book chapter provides an overview of national laws, regulations, and policy tools that govern macroplastics, mesoplastics, microplastics, and nanoplastics across countries. It reviews legally binding instruments including bans and restrictions on specific plastic products, arguing that coordinated multilateral action is required to address plastic pollution effectively.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.