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The ongoing international negotiations on a global plastics treaty will have pivotal implications for future efforts to transform the plastic economy. This is essential since the current use of plastic in the economy impacts the environment beyond the planetary carrying capacity. To ensure that the forthcoming Treaty can provide the foundation for this transition, the best available science must be made available in the negotiations, but with no formal scientific mechanism to inform the negotiations process, this is not ensured. The Scientists’ Coalition for an Effective Plastic Treaty serves as an example of how the global scientific community has self-organized and come together to address this task, working with five different categories of science-policy communication. The Scientists’ Coalition’s work is made transparent here with the hope that it can inspire organization of scientific input into other future policy areas.

Understanding litter dynamics on riversides is challenging due to the need for extensive data. A seven-year citizen science study with schoolchildren showed no major changes in litter density, composition, and sources on German riversides. The study categorized 26,757 macrolitter items (> 2.5 cm in size), mainly consisting of plastic and cigarette butts, with a median litter density of 0.28 items m-2. We found that wide rivers (> 51 m) had significantly higher median litter densities (0.42 items m-2) than narrow rivers (< 10 m, 0.14 items m-2), indicating greater litter accumulation in downstream areas. A zero-inflated binomial hurdle model showed that litter density variations were influenced by the interaction of the river system with sampling campaign and river width. Schoolchildren identified visitors as the most likely source of riverine litter. These findings highlight the value of citizen science in understanding long-term trends and show the urgent need for political measures.

With the ongoing negotiations for an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, and the frustration at the end of Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-3), analyzing the zero draft text, which formed the basis for this negotiation round, is crucial. This analysis examines to what extent the zero draft conveys a clear problem definition as the foundation for an internationally legally binding instrument on plastic pollution. We find that the draft lacks a clear problem definition. Additionally, we investigate how the zero draft balances the focus between marine environments and other affected areas and discusses the implications for governance strategies. We find that the draft focuses particularly on fishing gear and hence has a downstream perspective, while upstream measures are equally important. Furthermore, this study delves into the key motivations driving the treaty negotiations, revealing that health and environmental concerns predominate. In comparing our results with previous research, we align with recent publications analyzing INC submissions and onsite statements. In addition, we identify significant differences in key motivations to tackle the plastic pollution issues between the EU and the international level. These disparities, evident in how health and economic arguments are prioritized, reflect varied approaches to combating plastic pollution across political spheres.

Engaging the general public in research processes through citizen science allows for innovative scientific studies and makes science accessible to the general public. Effective communication strategies are crucial for the success of such initiatives. The citizen science program Plastic Pirates investigated the plastic pollution of rivers and implemented a variety of communication strategies with participating schoolchildren, teachers, and youth groups (e.g., sport associations, scouts or educational vacation programs, representing approximately 6% of participating groups). These were continuously revised and adapted since its start in 2016. Without time-efficient communication and strategies to keep track of conversations, it would not have been possible to achieve the scientific and educational goals of the program, i.e., to help teachers increase the environmental awareness and scientific literacy of their schoolchildren, and to produce peer-reviewed articles based on the collected citizen science data. Communication within the Plastic Pirates program was divided into four distinct phases: 1) recruiting and motivating participants, 2) coordination and guidance of participants, 3) data reception and revision, and 4) sharing updates and results. Some of the obstacles that had to be overcome to achieve successful communication were e.g., time constraints to obtaining scientific data from the participants, the time lag between the active involvement of the participants and the actual data analysis and publication of results, and limited personnel resources available for communication efforts. Our recommendations for other citizen science practitioners include regular and transparent communication with the participants regarding their contribution, the use of adequate and various communication channels, shifting the workload from the participants to the coordinating team of a citizen science initiative, as well as offering feedback on the research findings to the citizen scientists, thereby disseminating the results of the program.

Weltweit wächst der Eintrag von Kunststoffen in die Umwelt. Da die bestehenden Regulierungen zur Eindämmung des Problems nicht ausreichen, muss die ständig steigende Kunststoffproduktion und -nutzung insgesamt reduziert werden. Es bedarf eines systemischen Ansatzes, der alle Akteure in die Verantwortung nimmt, die Kunststoffprodukte und -verpackungen produzieren, nutzen, recyceln und entsorgen sowie damit handeln. Die Politik muss den nötigen Paradigmenwechsel vorantreiben und eine gesamtgesellschaftliche Suffizienzdebatte ermöglichen.

This review analyzes the subject focus of 45 articles (published 2019-2021), dealing with government action to regulate plastic pollution. Policies described in the articles and introduced between 2016 and 2021 are clustered in four categories: production - consumption - disposal - circular approaches. Our results show that most published articles deal with bans on single-use plastic (SUP) items in one or more countries. While SUP bags are still the most regulated items, there is a growing number of regulations on other SUP items, such as Styrofoam products or microbeads. While policies and research focus heavily on the consumption phase, the production phase is not only under-regulated, but also under-researched.

Few other environmental problems have received as much public attention and criticism in recent years as plastic pollution. Accordingly, in recent years, a number of plastic policies have been adopted at the national and supranational level in the EU and worldwide. In the U.S., health risks were repeatedly raised in the decision-making process of these policies and scholars have pointed out the crucial role of these arguments for the adoption of plastic policies. Hence, this article uses a structuring qualitative content analysis to investigate the parliamentary debates of two recently adopted plastic policies in the EU-namely the EU Plastics Strategy and the Single-Use Plastics Directive-and to assess the relevance of public health and environmental arguments for the EU debate. The analysis reveals broad support for plastics regulation among Members of the European Parliament, who most often use environmental arguments to corroborate their support for the policies in question. In contrast, health concerns do not seem to be crucial for the adoption of plastic policies in the EU.

While diffusion patterns are quite well understood in the context of the Global North, diffusion research has only been applied to a limited extent to investigate how policies spread across developing countries. In this article, we therefore analyze the diffusion patterns of plastic bag bans and plastic bag taxes in the Global South and Global North to contribute to the further refinement of diffusion theory by specifically addressing the under-researched Global South. Moreover, with an in-depth investigation of plastic bag policies through the lens of diffusion research, the article provides insights in the rather new and still underexplored policy field of plastic pollution. We find that industrialized countries have mostly adopted plastic bag taxes, while developing countries have mainly introduced plastic bag bans and thus more stringent legislation than countries in the Global North. So far, the key driving force for the diffusion of plastic bag policies in the Global North has been the global public pressure. In the Global South, where plastic bag litter is much more visible and harmful due to limited waste collection and recycling rates, national problem pressure has been much more influential.

In recent years, attempts have been made to develop an integrated Footprint approach for the assessment of the environmental impacts of production and consumption. In this paper, we provide for the first time a definition of the “Footprint Family” as a suite of indicators to track human pressure on the planet and under different angles. This work has been developed under the 7th Framework Programme in the European Commission (EC) funded One Planet Economy Network: Europe (OPEN:EU) project. It builds on the premise that no single indicator per se is able to comprehensively monitor human impact on the environment, but indicators rather need to be used and interpreted jointly. A description of the research question, rationale and methodology of the Ecological, Carbon and Water Footprint is first provided. Similarities and differences among the three indicators are then highlighted to show how these indicators overlap, interact, and complement each other. The paper concludes by defining the “Footprint Family” of indicators and outlining its appropriate policy use for the European Union (EU). We believe this paper can be of high interest for both policy makers and researchers in the field of ecological indicators, as it brings clarity on most of the misconceptions and misunderstanding around Footprint indicators, their accounting frameworks, messages, and range of application.

The common perception when considering the link between demography and sustainable development is that an increase in human population aggravates environmental problems. Long before the term “ecology” was coined, there were concerns about the earth’s capacity to provide food for the growing number of human beings. At the turn of the 18th century, the English parson and economist Thomas Robert Malthus became a pioneer of this discussion. Although his static way of modelling the development of population and food supply failed to provide adequate predictions, and despite the fact that there are good reasons to denounce his proposed remedies as blatantly inhumane, the basic problem he pointed out remains relevant: an ever-growing human population may at some point exceed the earth’s carrying capacity.