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Turning off the Tap: How the World can End Plastic Pollution and Create a Circular Economy
Summary
This United Nations Environment Programme report outlines a comprehensive strategy for ending plastic pollution through systemic changes rather than just addressing symptoms like cleanup. The proposed approach combines reducing unnecessary plastic use, shifting markets toward circular economy models, and creating safer employment for informal waste workers. The analysis shows that a systems-change approach could reduce plastic pollution by 80 percent by 2040 while also generating economic and social benefits.
While many technical solutions for a circular plastics economy are known, the economic, fiscal and business models to address the associated impacts while also safeguarding livelihoods are less clear. This report examines these issues and proposes a systems change scenario - addressing the causes of plastic pollution, rather than just the symptoms. Such a systems change will enable countries to end plastic pollution while at the same time transitioning towards safer and more stable jobs for those currently working in the informal sector, and create business and job opportunities. The report analyses the opportunities and impacts of a systems change scenario. The scenario combines reducing the most problematic and unnecessary plastic uses with a market transformation towards circularity in plastics by accelerating three key shifts - Reuse, Recycle, and Reorient and Diversify – and actions to deal with the plastic pollution legacy.