Reducing plastic pollution in agriculture and food systems

Policy measures to reduce plastic in agriculture and food systems will depend on the national and local contexts. However, strategic recommendations, including those provided by the UNEP and the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, offer a roadmap with solutions to cut global plastic pollution and support the transition toward reduced food packaging, including plastics:

• Prioritize the avoidance of unnecessary and avoidable plastics, and single-use products in general:
  • At the regional level, strengthen socio-ecological food value chains by promoting organic farming, community-based agriculture, producer-consumer associations, and regional supply chains with minimal packaging footprints.
  • Support environmental and social performance bonuses and rewards for packaging avoidance and reusable packaging use, including land allocation for organic farming and expanding zero-packaging stores with defined standards, clear inventory guidelines, improved weighing and cashier systems, and consumer access promotion.
• Reorient and diversify markets toward sustainable plastic alternatives:
  • Encourage the use of biodegradable or reusable alternatives, particularly for plastic mulch films and ALDFG, and for plastics that are short-lived or difficult to recycle and pose high littering risks. For example, promote and incentivize biodegradable plastics that naturally decompose through microbial activity, reducing the need for complex collection and disposal while maintaining performance.
  • Support the development and adoption of alternative materials to replace virgin plastics, emphasizing sustainable substitutes validated by life-cycle analysis (LCA).
• Accelerate reuse and establish sustainable reusable packaging systems:
  • Promote reusable packaging across the food system by supporting reuse schemes such as reusable water bottles, food containers, bags, refill models from dispensers, bulk retail systems, and low-packaging subscription services.
  • Implement take-back services using reverse vending machines, deposit refund schemes, and pooling systems for washing. For example, Deposit Return Systems (DRS) for reusable glass or plastic bottles operate at scale in many Latin American, European, and Southeast Asian countries, and in the business-to-business sector, shared or leased reusable crates are widely used.
  • Policies should encourage optimized reverse logistics for greater resource efficiency, including short transport routes, distributed return and washing services across multiple enterprises, efficient logistics, incentive systems for returns, standardized container formats, high circulation rates, renewable-powered filling and washing systems, reusable lids, and comparable life cycle assessments.
• Accelerate recycling through design and collection improvements:
  • Establish design rules to reduce polymer diversity, favour formats that are easier to reuse or recycle, and standardize packaging formats to enable sharing across companies, thereby increasing the profitability of reuse and recycling.
  • Ensure that collection and sorting systems align with recycling processes to produce recycled plastics that meet quality, consistency, and grade requirements comparable to virgin materials.

Broader governance measures that can enable the reduction of plastic use in agriculture and food systems include:

• Implementing circular economy plans to reduce plastic pollution by promoting resource efficiency, reuse, and recycling of materials. For example, the Dutch government introduced the “Circular Economy in the Netherlands by 2050” program, focusing on reducing raw materials usage, using sustainable materials, extending product life, and implementing high-grade recycling processes.
• Adopting Green Public Procurement (GPP) practices to procure goods, services, and works with reduced environmental impact. Promoting and using GPP can strengthen sustainable consumption and production, as well as efforts towards a circular economy for plastics and less plastic pollution.
• Supporting eco-labelling and environmental schemes to guide procurement decisions: For example, the EU Ecolabel is multi-criteria and tackles the main environmental impacts of products along their full lifecycle, from extraction of raw material to disposal.
• Complimenting these efforts with implementing consumer-friendly measures in food environments, such as behavioural ‘nudges’ and awareness campaigns, can guide individuals and organizations toward more sustainable choices.
• Develop comprehensive financing mechanisms:
  • To accelerate uptake in agricultural and aquacultural environments, introduce subsidies and financial incentives targeting farmers and retail channels. These measures can lower cost barriers and encourage the shift from conventional plastics to sustainable alternatives, reducing plastic pollution and supporting healthier soil and aquatic environments.
  • Incorporate innovative funding approaches such as the Regional Value Bonus, which ties agricultural subsidies like those under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to social and environmental performance, incentivizing farmers to adopt sustainable practices and actively reduce plastic pollution.
  • Directing revenues from plastic taxes towards environmental protection causes can foster policy acceptance. It is important to clearly separate Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which involves specific fees for waste management services, from plastic taxes and charges, as EPR is not a tax or fine. Revenues from plastic taxes and charges can support circular economy efforts and enhance public support for these policies.

Key tools and guides to support the reduction of plastic pollution can include:

Tools

Guides

Mitigating plastic pollution in agriculture and food systems also contributes to achieving the objectives of the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience, aligns with the targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF), and supports progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which the forthcoming Global Plastics Treaty is expected to reinforce.

Climate change mitigation benefits

• This study simulates eight treaty policies and shows that four of them (i.e. policies related to recycled content, virgin production cap, waste management investment, and a plastic packaging tax) could together reduce mismanaged plastic waste by 91% (86 to 98%) and gross plastic-related greenhouse gas emissions by one-third.
• The plastics industry is dependent on fossil fuels. Limiting plastic production would significantly decrease the demand for fossil fuels, helping to keep them in the ground.
• Depending on the waste composition, incineration of plastic waste releases 250–600 CO2 kg per ton of waste into the atmosphere. Reducing plastic pollution would decrease the volume of waste requiring disposal, thus avoiding these emissions.
• Plastic pollution may interfere with the ocean’s capacity to absorb and sequester carbon dioxide. Reducing plastic waste could help maintain and potentially improve this crucial ecosystem service.

Climate change adaptation benefits

Reducing plastic use and pollution in agriculture and food systems can directly contribute to following targets under the UAE Framework for Global Climate Resilience:

• Target 9a (Water & Sanitation): Reducing plastic pollution in waterways, drinking water sources, and coastal ecosystems limits the spread of contaminants and disease. Safeguarding water quality is crucial for communities adapting to climate-driven water scarcity and for maintaining healthy aquatic environments.
• Target 9b (Food & Agriculture): Minimizing the use of plastic mulch and packaging in agriculture helps prevent soil degradation, by reducing plastic residue buildup, which can harm soil structure and fertility. Healthier soils promote stronger, more resilient crop growth, supporting higher yields and food security.
• Target 9c (Health): Limiting plastic pollution helps reduce contamination throughout the food chain, lowering the risk of plastic-related toxins entering human diets. By ensuring cleaner food sources, these efforts can support improve public health outcomes and overall well-being, thus helping increase resilience to climate shocks.
• Target 9e (Infrastructure): By curbing plastic pollution, cities can prevent clogged drainage systems thereby improving flood management and reducing the risk of waterborne hazards. Cleaner urban environments are better equipped to withstand the impacts of extreme weather events linked to climate change.

Biodiversity benefits

Reducing plastic pollution in agriculture and food systems provides positive biodiversity outcomes, thereby contributing to several KM-GBF targets, in particular:

• Target 6 (Reduce the Introduction of Invasive Alien Species by 50% and Minimize Their Impact): Plastic debris in oceans can serve as a vector for the transport of invasive species to new areas. A study found that 738 species were observed to colonize plastic items, enabling their spread to new areas. By reducing plastic pollution, we can limit this unintended transport mechanism and help preserve local ecosystem balances.
• Target 7 (Reduce Pollution to Levels That Are Not Harmful to Biodiversity): A reduction in plastic pollution would lead to a significant decrease in species mortality, injuries and behavioural changes. Impacts of plastic pollution on marine wildlife are well documented, with the primary interactions being litter involve ingestion, entanglement, and smothering. In marine turtles, the probability of mortality raises to 50% once an animal has 14 pieces of plastic in its gut. There is growing recognition that terrestrial and freshwater species are also heavily impacted by plastic pollution, even though the interactions are not as well as documented as in the marine environment.
• Target 10 (Enhance Biodiversity and Sustainability in Agriculture, Aquaculture, Fisheries, and Forestry): Reducing plastic pollution in soil provides several benefits such as improved soil fertility and function, enhanced soil moisture retention, increased microbial activity, better soil structure and aggregate stability and improved water infiltration rates. In addition to benefiting terrestrial ecosystems, reducing microplastic contamination is necessary to maintain crop productivity and, in turn, food security. Similarly, minimizing plastic pollution in aquatic environments is crucial for protecting fisheries and aquaculture, ensuring healthy aquatic ecosystems and sustainable seafood production.
• Target 11 (Restore, Maintain and Enhance Nature’s Contributions to People): By reducing plastic pollution, we can help maintain biodiversity across various habitats while also preserving their ecosystem services – such as disease control, fertilizer and food production, carbon sequestration, coastal protection, nutrient cycling, sediment production, water purification and recreation.
• Target 16 (Enable Sustainable Consumption Choices To Reduce Waste and Overconsumption): As efforts to reduce plastic pollution intensify, consumers become more aware of their consumption patterns and are encouraged to make more sustainable choices. Furthermore, the push to reduce plastic pollution drives innovation in sustainable product design and manufacturing.

Other sustainable development benefits

• SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being): Reducing plastic waste supports good health by minimizing exposure to toxic chemicals and microplastics that are linked to numerous health issues such as cancer, endocrine disruption, reproductive and developmental problems, and other chronic diseases. Plastics contain thousands of chemicals – over 4,200 of concern– including additives that act as endocrine disruptors and can cause hormone-related disorders, cognitive impairment, and increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
• SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation): Reducing plastic waste helps ensure clean water and sanitation by preventing pollution of freshwater sources and protecting aquatic ecosystems from harmful plastic contamination. Minimizing plastic waste reduces this pollution input, supporting cleaner rivers, lakes, and groundwater, which are crucial for safe water and sanitation infrastructure, while also protecting aquatic life that maintains ecosystem services vital to water purification and biodiversity balance.
• SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities): Reducing plastic waste contributes to sustainable cities by improving waste management, preventing pollution, conserving resources, and lowering emissions. This leads to cleaner, healthier urban environments, enhances community well-being, and strengthens urban resilience through effective waste handling and active public engagement.
• SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production): Reducing plastic waste supports responsible consumption and production by promoting sustainable practices that minimize resource extraction and environmental impacts. This involves fundamentally shifting how plastics are designed, produced, used, and managed toward sustainability and circularity for example, drastically reducing the production and consumption of single-use and low-value plastics to tackle the root causes of pollution and waste buildup.
• SDG 13 (Climate Action): Reducing plastic waste aids climate action primarily by decreasing greenhouse gas emissions associated with plastic production and encouraging sustainable alternatives. In 2019, the global production of virgin plastics emitted about 2.24 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent, which accounted for approximately 5.3% of total global GHG emissions, comparable to or even exceeding emissions from sectors like aviation and shipping.
• SDG 14 (Life Below Water): Reducing plastic waste helps conserve marine ecosystems by preventing pollution that harms aquatic life and supports healthier oceans. Plastic debris in the ocean can physically entangle and kill marine animals, cause fatal internal injuries from ingestion, and also leach harmful chemicals into the marine environment, affecting the health of organisms and potentially entering the food chain.
• SDG 15 (Life on Land): Reducing plastic waste and supporting sustainable land use practices protects terrestrial ecosystems by minimizing chemical contamination and improving soil quality. This is because the accumulation of plastics in soils can alter physical properties such as pore space, water retention, capillarity, and evaporation, leading to drier soils that negatively impact plant growth and the surrounding biodiversity.

Achieving meaningful reductions in plastic pollution requires the development and execution of well-structured, context-sensitive interventions. These efforts, however, are often challenged by a combination of technical and institutional constraints, along with unintended externalities and trade-offs that can hinder overall effectiveness, including:

• Insufficient resources for purchasing and maintaining large-scale, locally appropriate technology.
• Overcoming economic and governance barriers for implementing ambitious lifecycle approaches.
• Developing countries face a significant financing gap of up to USD 500 billion, for implementing safe waste management infrastructure, supporting reuse models, ensuring a just transition for informal workers, cleaning up legacy plastic waste, and addressing human health impacts.
• Disproportionate economic burden on developing countries (0.6% GDP loss) compared to developed countries (0.4% GDP loss).
• High costs for collection and transportation of waste, particularly in small jurisdictions.
• Potential negative impact on industries, retailers, and workers in plastic-related sectors (e.g. job losses and disinvestments).
• Increased greenhouse gas emissions from alternatives to single-use plastics.
• Potential increase in food waste due to reduced packaging efficiency.
• Need for robust markets for scrap and secondary plastics to ensure effective recycling.

Integrating the following measures into a comprehensive and cohesive framework for plastic pollution mitigation can help address implementation challenges and minimize potential trade-offs:

• Leveraging diverse sources of public and private finance and directing capital flows towards interventions along the plastics lifecycle, including to scale up reuse systems and promote eco-design.
• Strengthened technical co-operation, capacity building and technology transfer to establish robust policy frameworks, ensure reliable revenue streams for domestic financing of waste collection and treatment, and target problematic applications.
• Adequately implement market-based mechanisms, such as extended producer responsibility schemes or plastic taxes, to internalize the environmental costs of plastic production and consumption.
• By integrating biodegradable alternatives with localized cold storage innovations, the challenge of potential increases in food waste resulting from reduced packaging efficiency can be effectively mitigated.
• Establish a stringent follow-up and review mechanism to assess the success of implemented measures and make necessary adjustments.

Effective tracking of plastic pollution reduction efforts relies on strong monitoring tools, clear indicators, and structured frameworks that capture both implementation progress and related biodiversity and climate outcomes.

Indicators to monitor biodiversity outcomes

The Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity agreed to a comprehensive set of headline, component, and complementary indicators for tracking progress toward the targets of the KM-GBF. Some of these indicators could also be functional for monitoring the implementation of this policy option. These indicators are:

Tools to monitor biodiversity outcomes

Tools to monitor climate outcomes

The cost of plastic pollution mitigation varies significantly based on a country’s unique socio-economic conditions, institutional capacities, and risk profile. Nevertheless, several studies have provided estimated cost ranges:

• UNEP Finance Initiative estimates that interventions focused on system change and single-use plastic reduction could cost USD 1.64 trillion globally.
• This paper provides estimates of the cost of preventing land-based plastic leakage into the ocean, covering 38 OECD member countries and 10 selected major plastic waste emitters in Asia and Africa. The study estimates capital costs at EUR 54 billion in the moderate ambition scenario and EUR 74 billion in the high ambition scenario.
• In the island of Aldabra Atoll, a remote UNESCO World Heritage Site, 25 tons of plastic pollution were removed in 2019, at USD 224,537 (USD 8,900 per ton). The estimated cost to remove the remaining 513 tons is USD 4.68 million (and require 18,000 person-hours of labour).

Notable examples of plastic pollution reduction initiatives, including those involving legal frameworks and public policies, include:

• In 2023, Spain introduced a Plastic Tax under Law 7/2022 which imposes a levy of €0.45 per kilogram of non-recycled plastic used in non-reusable packaging. This extends to everyday items like disposable tableware, food containers, and plastic wraps.
• In 2019, Delterra, a nonprofit organization, partnered with the Barrio Mugica community in Buenos Aires, Argentina and 13 labour cooperatives to establish a recycling and composting program called A Todo Reciclaje (ATR). Under ATR, collection workers use QR code technology to track data on recyclable, compostable, and mixed waste. Data are used to compare performance on a weekly basis and to identify solutions for any challenges that arise. Since the program’s inception, Barrio Mugica has achieved the highest recycling rates in the city.
• The UK has implemented a Plastic Packaging Tax of £200 as part of its efforts to reduce plastic waste and encourage the use of recycled materials. The tax applies to plastic packaging manufactured in or imported into the UK that contains less than 30% recycled plastic content.
• EU Regulation (2022/1616), together with existing rules like Regulation (10/2011) and the new Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP), creates a robust, innovation-friendly system for ensuring that recycled plastics used in food contact materials are safe, traceable, and scalable. This not only enhances consumer protection but also drives the shift toward a more circular plastics economy, helping the EU tackle plastic pollution effectively.
• In Ireland, tax revenues from the levy on plastic bags are transferred to the Circular Economy Fund, which is used to support initiatives to reduce waste and promote the reuse and recycling of goods.
• Parley for the Oceans is a global organization dedicated to protecting marine ecosystems through innovative collaboration and design. Using their AIR strategy (Avoid, Intercept, Redesign), they transform ocean plastic waste into sustainable materials, partnering with brands like Adidas to create eco-friendly products. The organization has conducted over 7,500 clean-ups across 30 countries, engaging 350,000 volunteers in their mission to combat marine pollution and raise environmental awareness.
• Plastic Bank is a social enterprise that transforms plastic waste into a valuable currency for impoverished communities. By offering above-market rates for collected plastic, they enable people to exchange waste for goods, services, and digital tokens. Operating in countries like the Philippines and Brazil, the organization prevents ocean pollution while empowering local communities through an innovative recycling model that creates economic opportunities from environmental cleanup.
• The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation 2025/40 (PPWR) includes measures for food packaging, such as: restrictions on certain single-use plastics; minimizing the weight and volume of packaging and avoiding unnecessary packaging; requirements for take-away businesses to offer customers the option to bring their own containers at no extra cost; and minimizing substances of concern, including restrictions on packaging containing per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) if they exceed certain thresholds.
• In 2008, Rwanda became one of the first countries in the world to ban single-use plastic bags in local markets, supermarkets, and restaurants, followed by banning other single-use plastic products, such as utensils. The non-plastic policy has also been embedded with the national citizen movement Umuganda, where citizens in the community work together to clean the environment on the last Saturday of every month.
• Voluntary, industry-led initiatives: The collection and recycling of agricultural plastics in Germany is primarily managed through voluntary commitments by manufacturers and industry associations, such as the ERDE (Erntekunststoffe Recycling Deutschland) initiative.
• The German Packaging Act serves as a practical example of integrating reuse and recycling through its Deposit Return System (DRS) for reusable bottles, originating in the late 1800s and formalized through legislation, which mandates that beverage producers manage the collection and recycling of packaging, primarily via established reuse systems. The 2023 amendment further requires food and beverage sellers to offer reusable options for on-site filled disposable packaging. Combined with local measures like single-use plastic taxes and grant programs in cities such as Tübingen, which led to a 400% increase in reusable packaging use, this intervention highlights how coordinated reuse and recycling policies can effectively reduce plastic waste and support a circular economy.
• A review on the use and recycling of agricultural plastic mulch in China demonstrates how integrating technological data, policy analysis, and farmer experiences can lead to targeted recommendations for a “safe, green, and long-term” approach to plastic mulch use, making it a strong example of research translated into practical, actionable interventions. The review analysed the history, current status, and environmental impacts of plastic mulch use in China’s farmland, as well as nationwide and provincial usage trends over the past 30 years. It found widespread adoption, particularly in regions such as Xinjiang, Gansu, and Shandong, alongside a significant issue: residual mulch fragments accumulating in soil, causing long-term pollution that threatens farmland health and crop yields. In assessing current recycling and disposal practices, the research examined both government policies and farmer-led initiatives, identifying gaps in infrastructure, incentives, and public awareness. It proposed two key strategic directions: enhancing plastic mulch recycling systems and accelerating the shift toward biodegradable mulching films.

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