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A critical moment for global action 

With exactly two months until the resumed negotiations for the global plastic treaty, the world stands at a critical juncture. The plastic crisis extends far beyond waste management, exacerbating the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution.  

To address the plastics problem will require mitigation and interventions across the full lifecycle of plastics, from production to leakage in the environment. Monitoring the success of interventions will depend on a coherent evidence base of data on plastics across the lifecycle. 

The scale of the plastic problem 

A quarter of all waste generated is mismanaged, meaning it’s neither recycled, incinerated nor stored in sanitary landfills. This mismanaged waste poses severe threats to our environment, with an estimated 19 million tonnes of plastic waste leaking into ecosystems each year, through the actual figure could be even higher. Of all plastic waste generated, only , highlighting the inadequacy of current waste management systems worldwide. 

In economic terms, the negative impacts of plastic pollution are estimated to cost between – this includes health impacts, environmental damage and lost economic opportunities arising from plastic pollution. 

The power of data in managing plastics

The success of any global plastics treaty will ultimately depend on robust mechanisms for transparency, accountability, and reporting. What is the fundamental basis of these components? Comprehensive, reliable data across the full lifecycle of plastics. 

To date, no country has reported data across the full lifecycle of plastics. Only 26% of countries regularly report data on waste generation, and just 25% consistently report recycling data.

Tracking country progress in this way has been made possible with the development of the by the Global Ocean Accounts Partnership (GOAP) and Centre for Sustainable Development Reform (CSDR) at the University of New South Wales. 

Gaps in data run deep at a global scale. While the impacts of data gaps may not yet be apparent, they leave cracks in the foundations of national evidence bases, which can cause significant obstacles for evidence-based decision making and reporting towards national and international targets. This is particularly important with the potential plastics treaty looming in 2025.

Comprehensive plastics data offers numerous advantages including:  

• Evidence-based policy making: Data provides the foundation for effective regulations and enables tracking of policy outcomes over time. 

• Targeted solutions: Understanding the sources and concentration areas of plastic pollution allows for more effective clean-up and management efforts. 

• Accountability and progress monitoring: Reliable data serves as a crucial tool for measuring advancements towards pollution reduction goals. 

• International collaboration: Standardised data collection enables countries to work together more effectively and coordinate regional solutions.  

• Resource optimisation: Comprehensive data analysis helps identify the most cost-effective interventions and prevents duplication of efforts across different projects and sectors.

• Stakeholder engagement: Transparent data sharing builds public awareness and facilitates meaningful participation of communities, businesses, and civil society in pollution reduction initiatives. 

• Treaty compliance and reporting: Standardised national datasets facilitate accurate reporting to international agreements, including the upcoming global plastic pollution treaty.

National-level data on plastics remains severely fragmented, making it difficult to identify and coordinate effective global efforts to tackle plastic pollution. In many developing countries, numerous funded plastic waste management projects are generating valuable data, but structural challenges prevent effective information sharing – donors and implementing organisations often fail to share findings with local stakeholders, while governments frequently lack established systems to gather and maintain this data. The result is that valuable information either remains siloed or is lost entirely when projects conclude. 

The Global Plastics Data Tracker 

Recognising the challenges in compiling national data on plastics, the Global Plastics Data was developed by the UNSW Centre for Sustainable Development Reform. The Data Tracker was first launched at INC-5.1 in November 2024. This year, the Data Tracker has been relaunched on a more user-friendly and interactive platform.

This comprehensive resource summarises the data that has been publicly reported for every country across the full lifecycle including data on production, consumption, trade, waste generation and waste treatment.

The tracker serves multiple functions including: 

• Identifying progress opportunities: Countries can understand where improvements can be made within their own jurisdictions. 

• Facilitating knowledge sharing: Countries can learn from others by observing different approaches to plastic data collection. 

• Comprehensive coverage: The tracker captures data relevant to the full plastic lifecycle, providing a holistic view of the plastics challenge. 

The path forward 

The evidence is clear, substantial progress is needed to improve plastics data collection globally to effectively tackle the plastic pollution crisis. As countries prepare for the treaty negotiations, it's critical that any global plastic treaty creates pathways for enhancing data systems while recognising that countries have different starting points and capacities.

Support available 

The Secretariat, UNSW Centre for Sustainable Development Reform and its partners will continue to support Member States to develop the evidence base needed to manage plastic pollution. Resources developed so far for Member States include:  

1. The Plastic Data Checklist & User Guide: a first-step assessment of the availability and reliability of national data on plastics. This can help countries to identify gaps and areas to prioritise finance and capacity building.

2. The Global Plastic Data Tracker: a complete assessment of national datasets publicly available for all countries to support them in their assessment of plastic flows throughout the lifecycle.

3. The Practitioner’s Guide to Plastics Data Systems: Recognising the critical need for better data management in the fight against plastic pollution, the CSDR Plastics Team is developing a Practitioners Guide for data collection and reporting to help countries fill existing data gaps and establish standardised methodologies for plastics monitoring. 

Developing national data systems: CSDR is also supporting countries to develop national data systems for plastics and waste, which provide a system to collect and store data systematically. This will enable governments to centralise fragmented information from government agencies, donor-funded and research projects, and civil society initiatives into unified national databases that ensure data continuity beyond project lifecycles and standardise collection protocols for consistent monitoring across regions and sectors.

By improving data collection and monitoring systems, countries can significantly enhance their efforts to tackle plastic pollution effectively. This World Environment Day serves as a reminder that the fight against plastic pollution requires not just action, but informed action, and that begins with better data.  

The resumed negotiations for the plastic treaty in 2025 presents a crucial opportunity to finalise an agreement that matches the scale and urgency of the plastic pollution crisis.