A local-to-global emissions inventory of macroplastic pollution.

Negotiations for a global treaty on plastic pollution will shape future policies on plastics production, use and waste management. Its parties will benefit from a high-resolution baseline of waste flows and plastic emission sources to enable identification of pollution hotspots and their causes. Nationally aggregated waste management data can be distributed to smaller scales to identify generalized points of plastic accumulation and source phenomena.

Scaling up resource recovery of plastics in the emergent circular economy to prevent plastic pollution: Assessment of risks to health and safety in the Global South.

Over the coming decades, a large additional mass of plastic waste will become available for recycling, as efforts increase to reduce plastic pollution and facilitate a circular economy. New infrastructure will need to be developed, yet the processes and systems chosen should not result in adverse effects on human health and the environment. Here, we present a rapid review and critical semi-quantitative assessment of the potential risks posed by eight approaches to recovering value during the resource recovery phase from post-consumer plastic packaging waste collected and separated with the purported intention of recycling.