On 27 August 2019 at the World Water Week in Sweden, IUCN launched a report that identified numerous gaps and opportunities for developing a standard methodology to measure the extent of the plastic pollution crisis. The urgently needed methodology will provide decision makers with improved data collection and analysis on plastic waste management at the global, regional and national levels.
Current methodologies do not allow us to better understand the impact of plastic leakage along the value chain, ultimately preventing us from measuring the extent of the plastic pollution problem.
Apart from providing a comprehensive overview of all 19 existing and emerging plastic footprint methodologies for the first time ever, the publication, Review of plastic footprint methodologies: Laying the foundation for the development of a standardised plastic footprint measurement tool also includes a glossary of key terms related to plastics and environmental footprints. This enables the modelling, field and business communities to speak a common language.