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Papers
61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Transforming the Plastic Industry: Global Regulatory Evolution and Sustainability Trends (2018-2024)
ClearGlobal Plastic Pollution and the Transition Towards a Circular Economy: Lessons from the EU’s Legal Framework on Plastics
This paper reviews the EU legal framework on plastics and the transition toward a circular economy, examining how regulatory instruments including the Single-Use Plastics Directive and extended producer responsibility schemes can reduce the billions of tons of plastic waste generated annually.
The Role of Legislation, Regulatory Initiatives and Guidelines on the Control of Plastic Pollution
This review examines existing plastic pollution regulations globally, finding that despite many proposals and national bans, the overall effectiveness of legislation is unclear and most measures focus narrowly on marine plastics or single-use items. The authors argue that laws often lag behind science and face practical limitations given how deeply embedded plastics are in daily life.
Global Plastic Industry Transition Addressing Key Drivers of the Triple Planetary Crisis
Researchers modelled global and regional transition scenarios for the plastic industry, integrating strategies to reduce fossil fuel dependence and shift to circular production models. They found that addressing plastic pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss simultaneously requires a coordinated policy package across the full plastic value chain.
Exploring Plastic-Management Policy in China: Status, Challenges and Policy Insights
Researchers reviewed China's plastic management policies and found that despite being the world's largest plastic producer, existing regulations remain insufficient, recommending strengthened extended producer responsibility and circular economy approaches to control plastic pollution.
Transforming the Global Plastics Economy: The Role of Economic Policies in the Global Governance of Plastic Pollution
This paper argues that addressing plastic pollution requires looking beyond waste management and marine cleanup to tackle the problem at its source, across the entire plastics life cycle including production, trade, and consumption. The authors trace how international policy discussions have evolved from voluntary approaches to regulatory frameworks, with over 100 governments calling for a new global plastics agreement. The research highlights the need for economic policies that address upstream production alongside downstream pollution.
GlobalPlastic Industry Transition Addressing KeyDrivers of the Triple Planetary Crisis
Researchers modelled global and regional transition scenarios for the plastic industry to address the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. They found that an integrated suite of policy measures—including production caps, extended producer responsibility, and recycling investment—is needed to achieve meaningful co-benefits across all three planetary challenges.
GlobalPlastic Industry Transition Addressing KeyDrivers of the Triple Planetary Crisis
Researchers modelled global and regional transition scenarios for the plastic industry to address the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. They found that an integrated suite of policy measures—including production caps, extended producer responsibility, and recycling investment—is needed to achieve meaningful co-benefits across all three planetary challenges.
An Integrated Analysis of Plastic Packaging Value Chain: Identifying Barriers and Enablers for a Circular Economy
Researchers analyzed the full plastic packaging value chain to identify barriers and enablers for transitioning to a circular economy, tracing the evolution of circular economy concepts and quantifying the environmental impacts associated with exponential plastic waste growth. The study provides an integrated framework mapping opportunities for intervention across production, use, collection, and recycling stages.
Politics and the plastic crisis: A review throughout the plastic life cycle
This political science review analyzed over 180 studies on the governance of plastics across their full life cycle, finding that marine pollution and microplastics are driving the fastest growth in plastic policy research. The authors identify fragmented governance architectures and the absence of binding international agreements as major obstacles to addressing the global plastic crisis.
Reducing plastic waste
This paper examined strategies and policy mechanisms for reducing plastic waste, reviewing effectiveness of bans, extended producer responsibility, and behavior change interventions in different national contexts.
A policy portfolio approach to plastics throughout their life cycle: Supranational and national regulation in the European Union
This study systematically analyzed plastic regulations across the European Union, Denmark, Germany, and Poland over the past twenty years. The researchers found that while the number of plastic policies has grown dramatically, most rules focus on end-of-life waste management rather than reducing plastic production at the source. The study suggests that current regulatory approaches may not be enough to address the full lifecycle of plastic pollution, including the microplastics that result from plastic breakdown.
Understanding the socioeconomic determinants of marine plastic pollution: Evaluating policy effectiveness and mitigation strategies in the Global South.
Researchers synthesized qualitative and quantitative evidence on marine plastic pollution in the Global South, identifying rapid urbanization, inadequate waste infrastructure, and weak governance as primary drivers, and recommending integrated strategies combining single-use plastic bans, extended producer responsibility, regional cooperation, and circular economy incentives.
China’s regulatory respond to plastic pollution: Trends and trajectories
Analysis of 231 plastic-related Chinese government policies from 2000 to 2021 revealed increasing regulatory attention to plastic pollution with a shift from general waste management toward specific single-use plastic restrictions after 2020. The findings highlight China moving toward more targeted plastic governance despite its large contribution to global ocean plastic.
What Shall We Do With a Sea of Plastics? A Systematic Literature Review on How to Pave the Road Toward a Global Comprehensive Plastic Governance Agreement
A systematic literature review of 64 peer-reviewed articles analyzed what a successful global plastic governance agreement would require, identifying key elements including binding reduction targets, extended producer responsibility, and a lifecycle approach that addresses plastic from production through disposal.
Plastics in transition: Global regulations and emerging technologies for sustainable management
This review analyzes how global plastic regulations (single-use bans, extended producer responsibility schemes, international treaties) interact with emerging cleanup technologies (chemical recycling, photocatalysis, biodegradation) and concludes that neither policy nor technology alone can solve microplastic pollution without coordinated socio-technical alignment. A key warning is that some emerging recycling and treatment technologies can themselves generate secondary microplastics and nanoplastics, meaning poorly designed solutions risk making the problem worse.
Policy priorities: emerging trends in a global response
This policy review examines global regulatory responses to plastic and microplastic pollution, identifying focal areas, gaps, and future directions by drawing parallels to historical policy development around air pollution management.
Global Plastic Production, Environmental Impacts, and Sustainable Remediation Strategies: A Comprehensive Review
This comprehensive review traces global plastic production from 1950 to 2025, documenting the exponential growth in output and associated waste, and evaluating remediation strategies including mechanical recycling, chemical recycling, biodegradation, and emerging alternatives.
Legislation to limit the environmental plastic and microplastic pollution and their influence on human exposure
This review surveys global legislation aimed at limiting plastic and microplastic pollution, including bans on single-use items, recycling mandates, and clean-up initiatives across different countries. The study also discusses how these regulations may help reduce human exposure to plastics and their associated toxic chemicals, though enforcement and scope remain uneven worldwide.
The Evolutionary Trend and Impact of Global Plastic Waste Trade Network
Analysis of the global plastic waste trade network from 1988 to 2017 found that recent national import bans have reshaped trade flows, with waste being redirected from China to other developing nations rather than reducing overall plastic waste generation.
A Critical Analysis of the Rising Global Demand of Plastics and its Adverse Impact on Environmental Sustainability
This critical review examined global trends in plastic demand and mismanaged plastic waste, identifying the top contributing countries and evaluating plastic replacement alternatives, arguing that reducing consumption and improving waste management infrastructure are more impactful than material substitution alone.
Assessing and managing environmental hazards of polymers: historical development, science advances and policy options
Researchers critically reviewed how polymer environmental safety regulations, largely unchanged since the 1990s, fail to keep pace with scientific understanding of plastic pollution. They identified four key areas needing regulatory attention, including better transparency about polymer identities, improved understanding of environmental fate across size categories, and more comprehensive hazard assessments. The study suggests that current regulatory frameworks worldwide need significant updates to adequately manage the environmental risks posed by polymers.
Politics and Policies of Bioplastic Regulations
This review examines the political and regulatory landscape governing bioplastics, tracing the history of bioplastic policies from early tax breaks and subsidies through key legislative milestones including Extended Producer Responsibility frameworks and the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive. The authors analyse how regulatory frameworks interact with industry development, addressing the growing intersection of marine pollution concerns, microplastic legislation, and the governance of bioplastic additives at national and international levels.
The Legal dilemmas and pathways for managing plastic waste pollution in China: An assessment of current regulations and a vision for future governance frameworks
This paper systematically analyses the current state of plastic waste legal regulation in China and proposes a framework for future governance, examining how the rapid growth of the e-commerce, express delivery, and food delivery industries has sharply increased plastic product consumption. The authors assess existing regulatory gaps and outline pathways toward more effective and comprehensive plastic waste management law.
The Environmental Challenges of Polythene and Production and Prevention Legislation in the World
This review examines the global environmental impact of polythene plastic pollution, discussing its effects on aquatic ecosystems and public health while analyzing the international and regional legislative frameworks aimed at reducing plastic production and use.