Plastics are integral to our daily lives, used in everything from packaging to electronics. However, excessive production and inadequate waste management are causing severe global health and environmental issues. As the world works towards establishing a new UN Plastics Treaty, its success hinges on the commitment of countries to implement effective policies covering the entire plastics lifecycle. Ensuring the treaty’s legitimacy and effectiveness also requires early involvement from national and local governments, the private sector, and civil society.

Despite some global efforts to assess plastic policies, there is a significant lack of systematic evaluations, particularly concerning implementation challenges and stakeholder perspectives.

This project aims to address this gap by: (1) examining the motivations behind different countries’ positions and interests in the UN Plastics Treaty (2) creating the Plastic Pollution and Policy Performance Index to evaluate the effectiveness of policies throughout the entire plastics lifecycle (3) identifying the barriers and needs faced by (sub)national governments in adopting and implementing effective plastic policies through a transdisciplinary approach.

The project will employ a mix of econometric impact evaluations, online survey experiments, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups. These methods will be applied across three main research streams, covering multiple countries to provide a comprehensive analysis of plastic policy performance.

By evaluating plastic policies and identifying trends and barriers, this project will provide insights for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers helping them in crafting innovative solutions and ensuring the successful implementation of policies to combat plastic pollution effectively on a global scale.