Plastic pollution is a growing global problem, which negatively affects human health and livelihoods as well as the climate and ecosystems. There are approximately seven billion tonnes of unrecycled plastic in the world today – in landfills, oceans, rivers and in the biosphere. Plastic debris is currently …
Plastic pollution is a huge problem on a global scale, negatively affecting human health and livelihoods, as well as the global climate and ecosystems.
As the international community comes together to develop multilateral solutions, international standards can provide useful tools to help transform pledges into action. ISO standards can contribute to multilateral solutions in the following ways:
Vocabulary and definitions
ISO has vocabulary standards with definitions of key terms related to plastics that can be accessed free of charge. These are regularly reviewed and are revised and updated as and when necessary.
Implementation
ISO standards can provide technical guidance to effectively implement the commitments any future instrument may contain. In using ISO standards, policymakers and businesses can not only save the time and resources needed to develop bespoke solutions, but they can be confident that they are relying on state-of-the-art solutions that are regularly maintained and updated by international experts, and that they are not creating any unnecessary barriers to trade.
International standards are referenced in national regulation and international legally binding instruments (including the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions). They are also used in conformity assessment to ensure compliance and quality at the national and international levels.
Which ISO standards address plastic pollution?
ISO standards represent best practices, as agreed by consensus through an open, transparent international process. ISO has standards in place that cover almost all stages of the plastics lifecycle – these can be explored using the interactive chart below. Key areas include End-of-life assessment (24 relevant standards), Labeling and transparency (15 relevant standards), Recycling and composting (13 relevant standards), and Cross-cutting standards-circularity (11 relevant standards).
The landscape of international standardization solutions for plastic pollution
Standardization efforts have also been made by other standardization organizations. This graph shows the number of standards per lifecycle stage, developed by a selection of different kinds of organizations.
For more information on relevant ISO standards that can help to address plastic pollution, or on how to participate in the development of ISO standards, contact the ISO member in your country or the sustainability unit at the ISO Central Secretariat.
For the standards mapping exercise, a broad definition of ‘standard’ has been used, so as to include a wide range of tools relevant for policymakers and businesses. Standards mapped as part of this overview include those by ISO, ASTM (formerly known as American Society for Testing and Materials), and CEN (European Committee for Standardization). Voluntary guidelines and best practices from civil society (organizations such as WWF and the Ellen McArthur Foundation), industry consortia, and intergovernmental actors (such as OECD and the UN agencies) have also been added.
This research was performed using relevant databases and repositories of standards, and the websites of key initiatives that target plastic pollution. Some standards might have been excluded in the search due to technical limitations (for example, national and regional standards from bodies other than CEN have not been included due to access and language barriers). Nevertheless, many relevant standards do exist at national level, with the UK, France and South Africa, in particular, undertaking significant work to address the circularity of plastic and new generation materials in their standards.
Plastic value chain/lifecycle stages in this article are purely for visualization and demonstration purposes, and do not represent an official classification. They are defined as follows:
Upstream
Feedstock: sourcing of feedstocks, including recycled and biobased feedstock, its quality, and dealing with its contaminants. Includes standards where a significant part is dedicated to the choice of materials and additives.
Design: development, vision and innovation of intermediary or finished product, including components, shapes, colours, facilitation of recyclability etc. Excludes choice of materials and additives (point 1). If one standard addresses both feedstock and design, it is double-counted.
Manufacturing: production of intermediary or finished product, good manufacturing practices. Standards related to workplace health and safety are out of scope.
Transportation: transport and movement of intermediary or finished plastic products.
Midstream
Labeling: includes labels, abbreviated terms and terminology, testing and traceability.
Sales: sourcing, procurement, purchasing guidelines.
Use: intended use, reuse and refill systems. Excludes choice of materials and additives for reusability.
Downstream
Repair: includes repair and refurbishment of plastic products and plastic-heavy industries (construction), excludes general requirements about right-to-repair.
Waste management: collection, sorting, transport and trade of waste; Extended Producer Responsibility programs.
Disposal: energy recovery, incineration, landfills, littering, waste from ships reception and incineration.
Recycling: recycling of plastic products and requirements for recycling. Includes composting.
End-of-life
End of life assessment: assessment of plastics in the environment, including leakage, wear and (bio)degradation, on land and in water, mostly in uncontrolled conditions.
Cleanup: picking up, collecting and reporting plastic litter, discarded fishing gear or other debris.
Across lifecycle: covers 2+ stages (for example, lifecycle of a specific plastic product), terms and definitions that do not fit in “labels and transparency” category. + circularity and zero waste principles in the graph.
This publication highlights key areas in which ISO standards provide useful terminology applicable to the plastics field. The short overview is presented together with a list of full definitions taken from the relevant standards.