Plastic Waste Management: A Bibliometric Analysis (1992–2022)

Plastic waste management has emerged as an urgent global challenge, that has attracted significant attention from researchers, policymakers, and stakeholders. Conducting a bibliometric study on this issue aims to provide a holistic and in-depth bibliometric mapping and analysis of plastic waste management, carefully traced through the Web of Science. Expansive data comprising scientific production by researchers, country/region contributions, affiliations, author references, and topical trends were meticulously scrutinized using the VOSviewer software (version 1.6.15). The exploration of bibliometric studies in plastic waste management is still limited, and this forms the basis of our commitment to explore this field in more depth. The findings in this study showed a progressive increase in the number of published works from 1992 to 2022, using the main keyword “plastic waste management” and 13,103 documents were found that were further analyzed. This demonstrates the profound impact of Chinese scientists on plastic waste management research, as evidenced by their prevalence as top affiliated authors. Given the increasing concern and heightened government and societal attention towards plastic pollution and water contamination, effective waste management, with a particular focus on plastic waste, emerged as the most influential keyword. This comprehensive analysis contributes to the existing literature by highlighting key trends and the urgent need for concerted efforts to address the challenges posed by plastic waste.