Waste

The notion of Plastic Age implies that a material and its materiality with all its relations it engages enables a new way of living. Plastics materialize through practices and technological configurations, are symbolically loaded, and enable new economic, technological, natural, and societal relations all atonce.

The absence of a consistent legal framework on end-of-waste for certain waste streams creates uncertainty for waste operators and for entities trading and using secondary raw materials. The implementation of EU-wide end-of-waste criteria can address these disparities in the value chain, ultimately increasing the uptake of high-quality secondary raw materials in manufacturing processes.

This report looks behind the scenes of corporate strategies to keep on polluting and urges companies to deplastify now. Thisrequires transitioning from plastics (particularly linear / singleuse plastics) to sustainable alternative materials and systems ofconsumption, such as reuse and refill. 

Are plastic credits a solution to the global plastic pollution crisis? The report provides a critical and impartial examination of the most prominent credit-issuing schemes and examines current practices with regard to governance structures, financial flows and what happens to the plastic waste collected in return for credits, and analyses environmental and social concerns.

This paper articulates the economic and financial basis for establishing a cap on global plastics production. The production cap, once adopted as part of the final legally binding agreement, is expected to serve as the linchpin to end plastics pollution.

This report models whether a virgin plastic production reduction target of 40% by 2040 (40×40) could keep the plastics industry within a 1.5°C carbon budget. It outlines the methodology used to predict how the global economy would respond to a 40×40 target, including modeling different scenarios based on business-as-usual (BAU) demand and reduced-demand scenarios. 

Just before INC5, this booklet gives an overview of negotiation priorities and challenges. The global treaty must not condemn our planet and communities to runaway climate change fuelled by unchecked petrochemical expansion, the collapse of ecosystems saturated with plastic pollution, and avoidable disease from exposure to microplastics and plastic chemicals.

This investigation uncovers shocking evidence of how bad actors exploit regulatory weaknesses and legal loopholes in the global plastic waste trade, fuelling a thriving illegal market. The global plastic waste trade continues to pose significant environmental and health risks, and causes huge amounts of pollution of land, air and even soil.

The newest feature of EIA’s Global Environmental Crime Tracker, the Plastic Waste Trade Crime Tracker is an important step towards exposing and tackling the illegal plastic waste trade. 

This report highlights the critical role of public authorities in advancing reuse systems for takeaway packaging. It shows that switching from single-use to reuse could significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower hidden costs like litter and carbon impacts.