Plastics, life cycle approaches and the law

Abstract

The way we currently use plastics is both unsustainable and inherently harmful to human and planetary health because it assumes a linear, not circular, flow of materials. Even today most plastic products are manufactured from fossil fuels, used only briefly and then discarded, burned or landfilled as waste, each of which has an environmental cost. Innovative governance approaches will be needed to promote a systems-based approach grounded in industrial ecology which takes into account challenges at every stage of the plastic cycle, ensuring materials are retained within a circular economy.