Ambitious new OECD report maps the lifecycle of plastics on a global scale

“One can only manage what one can measure,” said Shardul Agrawala, head of the Environment and Economy Integration Division at the OECD Environment Directorate yesterday at the press conference held ahead of the presentation of the OECD’s first Global Plastics Outlook: Economic Drivers, Environmental Impacts and Policy Options report. That report, presented today, offers for the first time a comprehensive overview of current plastics production, use and waste generation, together with an assessment of the underlying economic drivers. The report also maps the related environmental impacts on a global level such as plastic leakage to the environment and greenhouse gas emissions.

It then also presents four levers ‘for action’ that are critical to reduce the environmental impacts of plastics: bolstering markets for recycled (secondary) plastics, boosting technological innovation in plastics, increasing the ambitions of domestic policy measures and scaling up international co-operation.

The report paints a sobering picture of the current situation and the challenges facing efforts to turn this around.

A few figures: the world is producing twice as much plastic waste as two decades ago, soaring from 234 million tonnes (Mt) in 2000 to 460 Mt in 2019, with most ending up in landfill (almost 50%), being incinerated (another 19%) or leaking into the environment. Only 9% is currently successfully recycled.

Almost half of all plastic waste is generated in OECD countries, according to the Outlook. Plastic waste generated annually per person varies from 221 kg in the United States and 114 kg in European OECD countries to 69 kg, on average, for Japan and Korea. Most plastic pollution comes from inadequate collection and disposal of larger plastic debris known as macroplastics, but leakage of microplastics (synthetic polymers smaller than 5 mm in diameter) from industrial plastic pellets, synthetic textiles, road markings and tire wear, among others, are also a serious concern.

In addition, OECD countries are behind 14% of overall plastic leakage. Within that, OECD countries account for 11% of macroplastics leakage and 35% of microplastics leakage.

And while plastics use dipped 2.2% in 2020 as economic activity slowed due to the pandemic, littering increased, among other things, of face masks. However, as economic activity resumed in 2021, plastics consumption has also rebounded.

Next to identifying a set of four levers for action, the report also makes recommendations for setting these in motion. Considering global value chains and trade in plastics, aligning design approaches and the regulation of chemicals will be key to improving the circularity of plastics.

When it comes to bolstering the secondary markets for plastics, noted Shardul Agrawala, there are various reasons why this is essential. “Secondary markets are not competing on a level playing field with primary plastics,” he said. The high costs of collection, sorting, processing make it difficult to compete on price. Moreover the producers of secondary plastics tend to be much smaller firms and much less resilient in terms of resources compared to the producers of primary plastics producers. To overcome these bottlenecks, demand for secondary plastics must be boosted, by means of measures such as green procurement policies, extended producer responsibility schemes,  and by boosting the competitiveness of these plastics.

“It’s not just a question of quantities, but also of quality, because that's a key bottleneck for greater use of secondary plastics,” said Agrawala. “And here eco design and information requirements, as well as bans on hazardous substances, can improve the quality of the secondary feedstock. And finally, we also need to level the playing field.”

The second lever of intervention is to boost innovation. Compared to the climate change discussion ‘where innovation has been very central to the policy discussion for several decades now, there's been no talk, really, no systematic measurement of innovation for a more circular economy on plastics’, according to Agrawala. “Until now, until this report, there were no metrics to measure and quantify trends in innovation in environmentally related innovation in plastics. We offer a methodology to do that.”

This report found that in what is essentially a dynamic and innovative industry, environmentally relevant innovation makes up only 1.2% of all plastics-related innovation.

”We need to strengthen policies to incentivise design for circularity, boost demand for secondary plastics, closing the loops and curbing plastic leakage in the environment and all these policies would provide this signals to steer innovation in these directions,” he emphasised.

The third lever involves scaling up international financing and cooperation. “In our report, for the first time, we quantify how much it would cost to close the leakage pathways - focusing on low and middle income countries. And according to our estimate, the number is €25 billion a year,” said Agrawala. An international approach to waste management should lead to all available sources of financing, including development aid, being mobilised to help low and middle-income countries meet these costs to improve waste management infrastructure.

The final set of levers concerns the strengthening of domestic policies. “Not everything can be done just through the umbrella of international cooperation and financing,” Agrawala commented. A mix of policies is needed to address the various aspects of the problem, such as taxes on single use products, measures to promote resource efficiency, promoting reuse, removing fossil fuel subsidies and  establishing recycled content targets, all of which can create financial incentives to reduce use and foster circularity.

“Another element is how to encourage design for circularity - through recycled content standards, fee modulation of extended producer responsibility schemes, product norms, regulation of hazardous chemicals and so on,” said Agrawala.

In the report, a policy roadmap is proposed for countries to reduce the leakage of macroplastics. It proposes a three-pronged approach that starts with closing the leakage pathways and creating incentives for recycling and enhance sorting at source. Finally, demand should be curbed and design optimised, to make plastic value chains more circular and recycled plastics more price competitive.