Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

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.

2025 Figshare
Article Tier 2

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.

2025 Environmental Science & Technology
Article Tier 2

A multidisciplinary perspective on the role of plastic pollution in the triple planetary crisis.

This perspective paper argues that plastics are a central driver of all three dimensions of the planetary crisis — pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss — and must be addressed with the same urgency as carbon emissions. The authors call for a multidisciplinary approach that recognizes plastics as a systemic environmental threat rather than a siloed waste management issue.

2024 Environment international
Article Tier 2

Guiding the transition to a sustainable plastic system: towards a plastic system assessment framework

This thesis developed a plastic system assessment framework to evaluate short-lived plastic products against sustainability criteria, balancing the triple planetary crisis contributions of plastic production against the functional value plastics provide in modern daily life.

2025 Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling
Article Tier 2

Transforming the Plastic Industry: Global Regulatory Evolution and Sustainability Trends (2018-2024)

Researchers analyzed the evolution of plastic governance frameworks across ten major economies from 2018 to 2024, documenting regulatory milestones including single-use plastic bans and extended producer responsibility schemes and assessing progress toward sustainability goals in the global plastics industry.

2025 Technix International Journal for Engineering Research
Article Tier 2

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.

2025 Journal of Green Economy and Low-Carbon Development
Article Tier 2

Plastics Pollution and the Planetary Boundaries framework

This paper examines how plastics pollution affects Earth-system processes along the full impact pathway from production to environmental fate, arguing that plastics have exceeded the planetary safe operating space and that their interactions with climate change and biodiversity loss exacerbate the consequences of breaching multiple planetary boundaries simultaneously.

2022 13 citations
Article Tier 2

A transdisciplinary approach to reducing global plastic pollution

This opinion piece advocates for a transdisciplinary approach to reducing global plastic pollution, emphasizing the need to integrate natural science, social science, governance, and industry perspectives to develop effective and equitable solutions to the plastic pollution crisis.

2022 Frontiers in Marine Science 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Integrated Recycling and The Impact of Plastic Waste from Industry and Agriculture on The Environment

This review examined the environmental impacts of plastic waste from industrial and agricultural sources and assessed integrated recycling strategies for reducing those impacts. The paper discussed how plastic waste prevention, collection, and recycling can minimize pollution and climate contributions from the growing global plastic waste stream.

2024 Qubahan Academic Journal 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Evaluating scenarios toward zero plastic pollution

Researchers modeled five different intervention scenarios for reducing global plastic pollution between 2016 and 2040 and found that even implementing all feasible solutions would only cut pollution rates by 40% compared to 2016 levels. Under a business-as-usual scenario, 710 million metric tons of plastic waste would still accumulate in ecosystems even with immediate action. The study makes clear that coordinated global efforts across consumption reduction, recycling, waste collection, and innovation are urgently needed.

2020 Science 1594 citations
Article Tier 2

Global 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.

2024 Environmental Policy and Law 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Plastic Pollution and Climate Change: Double Trouble

This accessible review explains how plastics and climate change reinforce each other — plastic production emits greenhouse gases, warming accelerates microplastic release from the environment, and microplastics themselves disrupt ecosystems that regulate climate — calling for integrated policy solutions.

2025 Frontiers for Young Minds
Article Tier 2

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.

2023 Sustainability 59 citations
Article Tier 2

From the Ecological Crisis of the Anthropocene to the Ecological Transition

This philosophical and scientific paper frames the current environmental crisis as an Anthropocene crisis involving not just climate change but the destabilization of the entire Earth system, including plastic pollution and biodiversity loss. The author argues that ecological transition requires systemic change in human-nature relationships.

2024
Review Tier 2

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.

2021 Frontiers in Marine Science 71 citations
Article Tier 2

Global environmental plastics dispersal under OECD policy scenarios towards 2060

Researchers modeled how global plastic pollution would spread through the environment under different policy scenarios developed by the OECD, looking ahead to 2060. They found that even with ambitious policy action, significant amounts of plastic will continue leaking into aquatic environments unless waste management improves dramatically worldwide. The study suggests that coordinated global policies targeting both plastic production and waste management are essential to curb environmental plastic pollution.

2024 6 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2026 Journal of Environmental Management
Article Tier 2

Transitioning to a Sustainable, Circular Economy for Plastics [Workshop Report]

This is a workshop summary report about transitioning the U.S. plastics industry toward a circular economy, covering recycling technology, policy gaps, and business models. While it touches on plastic pollution as context, it is primarily a policy and industry roadmap document rather than a research study on microplastic environmental or health risks.

2023
Article Tier 2

Technology cannot fix this: To stay within planetary boundaries, plastic growth must be tackled

Researchers argue in response to Bachmann et al. that technological solutions alone cannot address plastics pollution within planetary boundaries, contending that the full lifecycle of plastics — from resource extraction to earth system process impacts — must be considered and that plastic growth itself must be curtailed.

2023 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Impacts of Plastic Pollution on Ecosystem Services, Sustainable Development Goals, and Need to Focus on Circular Economy and Policy Interventions

This review examines the impacts of plastic pollution on ecosystem services and sustainable development goals across terrestrial and aquatic environments. The study highlights that only about 9% of global plastic production is recycled, and recommends circular economy approaches, life cycle assessments, and stronger policy interventions to address the growing plastic waste crisis.

2021 Sustainability 955 citations
Article Tier 2

Forecasting global plastic production and microplastic emission using advanced optimised discrete grey model

Researchers used advanced mathematical models to forecast future global plastic production and microplastic emissions. Their projections suggest that both production and emissions will continue rising significantly in the coming decades if current trends hold. The study provides policymakers with quantitative predictions that could help guide strategies for reducing plastic pollution.

2023 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 16 citations
Article Tier 2

Recycling of Plastics as a Strategy to Reduce Life Cycle GHG Emission, Microplastics and Resource Depletion

This study quantified the environmental benefits of recycling widely consumed plastic polymers, demonstrating that increased plastic recycling significantly reduces life cycle greenhouse gas emissions, microplastic pollution, and resource depletion.

2023 Sustainability 38 citations
Article Tier 2

Emerging Technologies Supporting the Transition to a Circular Economy in the Plastic Materials Value Chain

Researchers reviewed how emerging technologies — including artificial intelligence, bio-based materials, and chemical recycling — can accelerate the transition from a linear "make-use-discard" plastic economy to a circular one where plastics are continuously reused. The study finds that no single technology solves the plastic waste problem; instead, coordinated sets of complementary technologies, supported by smart governance, are needed.

2022 Circular Economy and Sustainability 21 citations
Article Tier 2

Role of Plastics in Modern Life: Benefits, Risks and Environmental Consequences

This review examines the dual role of plastics in modern society — their economic benefits alongside environmental and public health risks — and surveys strategies for more sustainable plastic production and disposal.

2025 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)