New Guidance document

UNEP, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the Life Cycle Initiative co-developed a ‘National Guidance for Plastic Pollution Hotspotting and Shaping Action’. The Guidance aims to provide a methodological framework for identifying plastic leakage ‘hotspots’, finding their impacts along the entire plastic value chain, and then prioritising actions once these hotspots are identified. It is aimed at enabling countries, regions, or cities to take and use this methodological framework in their own environments and establishing a baseline for benchmarking and tracking the progress of interventions.

The Guidance takes a holistic approach, covering major types of plastic polymers and products, as well as their leakage and impacts along the full value chain.

This Guidance will contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular SDG 12 which focuses on ensuring sustainable pro- duction and consumption patterns, and SDG 14 which aims to conserve and sustainably use the services of the oceans, seas and marine resources. The Guidance will also contribute to the implementation of the resolutions adopted at the fourth session of United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA4) in March 2019, including but not limited to the resolution on achieving sustainable production and consumption (UNEP/EA.4/Res.1), the resolution on marine plastic litter and microplastics (UNEP/ EA.4/Res.6) and the resolution on addressing single-use plastic products pollution (UNEP/EA.4/Res.9).

New Guidance website to provide related modules and tools

A website dedicated to the Guidance is now available. Several modules and tools are set to be published later this year on the website to help users for data collection, modelling and calculations. Watch the Life Cycle Initiative’s Twitter and LinkedIn profiles for up-to-date information.