Webinar 2: Plastics INC Science informing decision-making

This webinar presentation outlines how scientific evidence informs effective policy on plastics across their full life cycle, from production to disposal, with emphasis on global scale impacts and governance needs. It presents data on rapidly increasing plastic production, widespread environmental leakage, and growing waste streams, alongside documented human health and ecological risks linked to chemical additives, microplastics, and emissions. The document reviews the scope of activities involved in plastics manufacture, use, recycling, and disposal, and frames policy aims around reducing environmental release, health impacts, climate effects, and economic costs. It draws on regulatory precedents, monitoring approaches, and science–policy mechanisms to illustrate how evidence-based measures can support implementation, evaluation, and continuous improvement of plastics governance.