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The linear production and consumption of plastics today is unsustainable. It creates large amounts of unnecessary and mismanaged waste, pollution and carbon dioxide emissions, undermining global climate targets and the Sustainable Development Goals. This Perspective provides an integrated technological, economic and legal view on how to deliver a circular carbon and plastics economy that minimizes carbon dioxide emissions. Different pathways that maximize recirculation of carbon (dioxide) between plastics waste and feedstocks are outlined, including mechanical, chemical and biological recycling, and those involving the use of biomass and carbon dioxide. Four future scenarios are described, only one of which achieves sufficient greenhouse gas savings in line with global climate targets. Such a bold system change requires 50% reduction in future plastic demand, complete phase-out of fossil-derived plastics, 95% recycling rates of retrievable plastics and use of renewable energy. It is hard to overstate the challenge of achieving this goal. We therefore present a roadmap outlining the scale and timing of the economic and legal interventions that could possibly support this. Assessing the service lifespan and recoverability of plastic products, along with considerations of sufficiency and smart design, can moreover provide design principles to guide future manufacturing, use and disposal of plastics. Four future greenhouse gas emission scenarios for the global plastics system are investigated, with the lead scenario achieving net-zero emissions, and a series of  technical, legal and economic interventions recommended.

Researchers are studying how more-sophisticated policies, smarter recycling and new materials could stem the tide of waste. Researchers are studying how more-sophisticated policies, smarter recycling and new materials could stem the tide of waste.

Collaboration is key to making plastic use greener as soon as possible. Our experience yields tips on how to set up industry–academic partnerships. Collaboration is key to making plastic use greener as soon as possible. Our experience yields tips on how to set up industry–academic partnerships. An underwater view of water polluted with plastic waste

Letter to the Editor

Machine learning has been used to turn a survey of local waste-management practices into a global inventory of plastic emissions. The data show that tackling plastic pollution will require reduced production and consumption. Global inventory of plastic emissions.

Letter to the Editor

Plastics in the environment have moved from an \"eye-sore\" to a public health threat. Hospitals are one of the biggest users of single-use plastics, and there is growing literature looking at not only plastics in the environment but health care's overall contribution to its growth. This study was a retrospective review at a 411-bed level II trauma hospital over 47 months pre and post the last wave of COVID-19 affecting this hospital. Deidentified data were gathered: daily census in the emergency department, hospital census, and corresponding number of admitted COVID-19 patients. Additionally, for the same time frame, personal protective equipment (PPE) supply purchases and gross tonnage of nonhazardous refuse were obtained. There was a large increase in PPE purchased without a significant change in gross tonnage of weight of trash. PPE is incredibly important to protect health care workers. However, single-use plastic is not sustainable for the environment or public health. Understanding the full effect of the pandemic on hospital waste production is critically important as health care institutions focus on strategies to decrease their carbon footprint and increase positive impacts on public health and the environment.

CDC and WHO guidelines for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) diagnosis only recommend synthetic fiber swabs for nasopharyngeal (NP) sampling. We show that cotton-tipped plastic swabs do not inhibit PCR and have equivalent performance to rayon swabs. Cotton-tipped plastic swabs are massively produced worldwide and would prevent swab supply shortages under the current high SARS-CoV-2 testing demands, particularly in developing countries.

The issue of carbon emissions in the plastic supply chain has attracted global attention, and relevant countries have formulated and introduced economic policies and measures to reduce plastic carbon emissions. To solve this dilemma, some scholars have proposed the path of empowering the plastic supply chain through digital technology to achieve carbon reduction. However, there are few research results on the mechanism of digital technology empowering the carbon reduction of the plastic supply chain. This paper analyzes the results of carbon reduction research in digitally enabled supply chains through a bibliometric review method. Using the keywords of digitally enabled, plastic supply chain, and carbon footprint, the relevant literature of Web of Science was collected, and the research trends, keyword co-occurrence phenomena, and research hotspots were analyzed by VOSviewer. The findings of this study form six clusters of carbon reduction and digitalization research results in the plastic supply chain, from which we derive six future research directions in the field, such as “carbon emission reduction in the consumer side of the plastics supply chain”, “The development of digital industrialization of carbon emission reduction” etc. The contribution of this article lies in constructing a theoretical framework model for digital technology empowering carbon reduction in the plastic supply chain, which provides a theoretical basis for governments and plastic industry enterprises to promote carbon neutrality.

Plastics are an important basic material for national economic development. In the post-COVID-19 stage, green supply chain management has attracted widespread attention. In order to achieve carbon neutrality in the plastics industry, we explored the drivers of supply chain decarbonization in the plastics industry from a microlevel corporate supply chain perspective. Four primary factors and 21 subfactors were identified from the existing literature, and after validation by 12 experts, the causal relationships between the factors were analyzed using the Gray-DEMATEL method. The Gray-DEMATEL method was applied to analyze the causal relationships between the factors. The findings show that joint promotion by stakeholders is the most significant cause driver and market impact is the most prominent driver in the first-level indicator, both of which have a significant impact on low-carbon production. “Process optimization”, “Top-management support”, “Government regulations and support”, and “Information disclosure” are the most significant cause secondary drivers under the corresponding Tier 1 indicator factors, respectively, to provide realistic guidance for companies engaged in the plastics industry to continue to develop a low-carbon circular economy to achieve net-zero emissions under the challenges of COVID-19. Therefore, companies need to focus on the drivers of most importance in this work and understand the interplay between factors.