Clemence Schmid, Director of the Global Plastic Action Partnership, shares how local action around the world is inspiring real change when it comes to addressing plastic pollution.
More than 460 million tonnes of plastic are produced every year, with around 19 million tonnes leaking into the environment, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions, harming biodiversity, and affecting livelihoods and public health. If current trends continue, global plastic use could triple by 2060.
That’s why the transition to a circular economy for plastics is becoming an economic, environmental and strategic imperative.
From the recent gathering at London Climate Action Week to the upcoming UN climate change conference in Turkey and the next phase of Global Plastics Treaty negotiations, there is growing recognition that building a circular plastic economy will require transformation, not incremental change.
This is not just a waste issue. Plastic pollution is a systems failure, driven by inefficiencies across the full material lifecycle, from production and design to use and recovery.
Treating plastic solely as waste overlooks its broader economic dimension: lost material value, increased system costs and growing pressure on natural resources. Together, these challenges represent a $4.5 trillion economic opportunity missed.
Reframing the challenge
There is no debate that plastic pollution represents a significant challenge – international ambition has played an important role in elevating the issue on the global agenda. The next challenge is translating that ambition into coordinated action, investment and systems change.
To do this requires looking beyond end-of-life management and rethinking modern consumption models, product design, policy frameworks, and value retention systems to help create a self-sustaining circular economy.
While Global Plastics Treaty negotiations did not conclude in 2025, their continuation presents an opportunity to consider what is already working in practice. Many countries are demonstrating that meaningful progress is possible today while negotiations continue.
These experiences offer valuable lessons for the next phase of the treaty process and show how national efforts can help inform global action.
Innovation is no longer the bottleneck
Proven solutions are already being deployed. Across countries and value chains, governments, businesses and communities are strengthening collection systems, improving recycling infrastructure and redesigning products for circularity.
In Africa, for example, the absence of harmonised regional standards for food-grade recycled plastics has been slowing investment and innovation.
Collaboration between the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO), Africa Circular Economy Alliance (ACEA), African Union, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Circularium Africa Advisory led to the creation of the African Standard for Recycled Polyethene Terephthalate (rPET) for Food Contact.
The standard establishes common testing and safety requirements, helping unlock investment, support regional trade and accelerate circularity.
In the Philippines, which generates 163 million flexible plastic sachets every day and loses an estimated $890 million worth of recyclable materials annually, a new plastics recycling working group brings together government, business, civil society and development partners.
The initiative supports innovative recycling technologies, strengthens collection systems and advances a full value-chain approach, including food-grade recycling.
Through the World Economic Forum’s Global Plastic Action Partnership’s network, 25 countries are developing National Plastic Action Roadmaps tailored to their national contexts.
While countries bring different perspectives to the treaty negotiations, many converge around practical priorities: improving waste management systems and product design, strengthening markets for recycled materials, attracting investment, creating jobs and reducing pollution.
This demonstrates that there is already significant alignment on many of the actions needed to accelerate the transition to a circular economy for plastics.
Nigeria’s roadmap, for example, shows that a package of circular economy measures could increase plastic circularity to 58%, reduce plastic pollution by 67%, lower greenhouse gas emissions by 39% and create nearly 97,000 jobs by 2040 compared with business as usual.
A window for action
What links these examples is not innovation alone, but coordination across governments, businesses and financial institutions. The countries and organisations making the greatest progress are aligning policy, finance and industry action in ways that create lasting value.
Innovation is not the bottleneck – it is coordinated, multistakeholder models that unlock progress, because even the most ambitious leaders face systemic barriers that no single entity can overcome alone.
Coordinated action is the critical link, enabling policy movement across regions and greater access to much-needed finance, in turn sending clear and consistent market signals that can drive the replication of successful initiatives at speed and scale.
The treaty process has generated unprecedented global attention and momentum around plastic pollution. The next phase offers an opportunity to build on that momentum by learning from the action already underway across countries and regions.
Piecemeal and siloed approaches remain insufficient to address the plastic pollution challenge at the scale required. Future progress will depend on frameworks that strengthen collaboration, build resilient economies, protect ecosystems and unlock sustainable growth.
As the treaty process resumes, leaders must build on what already works, using proven methods as the foundation for global scale.
Plastic pollution is a systems issue and must be treated as such – no other approach will facilitate the change we urgently need and upon which our environment, economies, health and well-being depend.