Preventing Plastic Pollution

Overview of the Decision Tree to Prevent High-Leakage Plastic Applications

This decision tree is a criteria-based tool designed to identify and address problematic and avoidable plastics applications, promoting a circular economy and an environment without plastic pollution. It emphasizes a comprehensive approach that considers the entire life cycle of plastics and addresses critical aspects like product design, waste management, and exemptions.


As countries around the world face different realities and needs, this tool aims to set universal criteria while allowing governments flexibility to assess and implement measures through national action plans. It consists of a ranked flow of questions based on the waste hierarchy (i.e. prevention, resource efficiency, reuse, recycling, recovery, including energy recovery, landfill, and controlled disposal).

Three integral branches: circularity, waste management, and essentiality

The comprehensive tool guides users through specific scenarios requiring actions or assessments of national and local conditions, which can lead to product redesign or exploring alternative options.

The first part focuses on the principles of plastics circularity and promotes global “design for circularity” standards to reduce or eliminate application leakage. It also calls for a reassessment

The second evaluates waste management against circularity goals. It considers the availability of local waste facilities and the possibility of improving the end-of-life treatment of plastic products and components, emphasizing the transition to a circular economy.


Lastly, the third part considers whether the plastics application is essential and has socio-economic value in a national or local context and whether environmentally sound alternatives are available (from a life cycle assessment perspective).

A Swift Pathway to Ending Pollution

This decision tree’s application-based approach can apply to all products, fostering enabling policies globally and nationally. It aims to achieve circularity within a time frame or replace problematic (plastic) products with sustainable alternatives. By focusing efforts on products with the highest likelihood of leakage, it paves a swift and effiient pathway to ending plastic pollution.

The Decision Tree Assessment Tool for Problematic and Avoidable High-Leakage Plastic Applications