New “Plastics Management Index” to measure how countries cope with plastic pollution

Back to Blue, an ocean health initiative of Economist Impact and The Nippon Foundation, released its first edition of its Plastics Management Index (PMI). The index ranks 25 countries worldwide across five continents, assessing the capacity of a country to minimize plastics mismanagement while promoting the optimal production and use of plastic as a resource. The index comprises three pillars – governance, existing systemic capacity, and stakeholder engagement —measured across 12 indicators and 44 individual sub-indicators.

The world produces and uses more plastic each year, with 367 million metric tonnes manufactured in 2020. With production forecast expected to double by 2040, plastic is not the world’s only pollution challenge, but it is arguably the most prominent. The scale of the challenge demands a new framework that covers the entire lifecycle of plastic products—from design to production to consumption to disposal and beyond. The PMI is designed to bring attention to growing global concerns around the use of plastic, highlighting how its management can be made sustainable.

The report reveals that Germany is the top performer overall in plastics management, scoring 87 points out of 100. Ranking first for governance and stakeholder engagement and third for systemic capacity, this is largely due to the country’s recycling scheme by the government and industries that have resulted in a circular economy for plastics.

Despite producing half the world’s plastics, Asia lags in global plastics management efforts as compared to Europe. Europe leads the overall ranking largely thanks to the proactivity of the European Union and the region’s ability to fund innovation and research. Asia-Pacific countries largely comprise the middle of the table, followed by Latin American nations and those in Africa.

The PMI focuses on three categories for each of the 25 countries:
● Governance, which assesses a country’s mix of laws, regulations and incentives for plastics management.
● Systemic capacity, which measures a country’s scope to oversee, collect, sort and recycle plastic waste, and its investment in capacity-building efforts.
● Stakeholder engagement, which looks at international and national efforts by governments to combat plastic waste, along with the endeavors made by the private sector and consumers.

Research for the PMI reveals:
● Germany is the top performer overall in plastics management, scoring 87 points out of 100.
● Europe leads the overall ranking, in part because most European nations in the index are wealthy, but also thanks to the proactivity of the EU and its ability to fund innovation and research. Asia-Pacific countries largely comprise the middle of the table, followed by Latin American and African countries.
● China, the world’s largest plastics producer, is developing the capacity to manage plastics but lags on stakeholder engagement.
● Most lower-middle-income countries struggle across the board—although Vietnam and Ghana outperformed.
● Differences in stakeholder engagement divide some over- and underperformers.
● Although signing international agreements is important, it is crucial that nations act domestically too

“We have created the Plastics Management Index as a new benchmark for measuring how countries are coping with plastics from cradle to grave–just as the need, and interest, globally builds for managing plastics across their entire lifecycle, rather than with piecemeal approaches such as plastic bag bans. Quite a few countries continue to struggle, though the index identifies real currents of hope. But equally, just because countries appear to be performing well does not mean they are doing enough to address the issues.”

Naka Kondo, editor of the PMI report, Policy and Insights at Economist Impact and Science-Policy-Business Forum contributor.