For over twenty years, IPEN member groups have produced original research from their countries and regions to document threats to human health and the environment from hazardous chemicals in plastics. Their studies often contain the only such data of its kind from these areas and provide critical information for international policy negotiations and for advancing the science on toxic plastics.
Now this global dataset is compiled in an interactive map covering more than 130 publications from over 120 of IPEN members’ research, science, and policy analyses from more than 85 countries. Together the publications demonstrate the risks to health and the environment from toxic chemicals that are released throughout the plastics life cycle: from extraction and production of raw materials (fossil fuels and toxic petrochemicals), to transport and use of plastic products, and through plastic recycling and waste disposal.
The map is being released today along with a Citizens’ Report highlighting IPEN members’ decades of work and their role in global policy deliberations, in anticipation of the upcoming Plastics Treaty INC-5 negotiations in Busan, Republic of Korea this November 25 to December 1.
“Toxic chemicals in plastics cross borders without transparency or controls, threatening countries that are not major plastics or chemical producers,” said Griffins Ochieng, Co-chair of IPEN’s Plastics Working Group and Executive Director of the Centre for Environmental Justice and Development (CEJAD) in Kenya. “The studies compiled in this global dataset reveal that we cannot recycle our way out of the toxic plastic crisis, because recycling simply passes toxic chemicals on through the market, poisoning the circular economy. We need a meaningful Plastics Treaty to address plastic overproduction and create global controls on toxic plastic chemicals to protect human health and the environment.”
The publications compiled in the global dataset include policy analyses, studies on testing of hundreds of plastic products, studies on environmental and food chain contamination from plastic waste, surveys of country-based plastic data, and more. Some of the highlights are:
- Plastics Poison Downstream: More than 40 studies featuring environmental sampling and analyses showing health threats from plastic waste dumps, incinerators, and recycling facilities on 5 continents. Among these studies are original research from dozens of countries finding toxic chemicals from plastics in samples of free-range chicken eggs from more than 100 flocks, demonstrating that plastic waste dumps, open burning of plastic, plastic recycling facilities, and incinerators can contaminate the food chain and the environment.
- Plastics Poison Children’s Toys, Food Containers, and Other Products: More than 30 product testing studies on more than 1,000 plastic children’s toys, baby bottles, cooking utensils, and other plastic products from more than 80 countries, including hundreds of products made from recycled plastics. The product testing data overwhelmingly show that children and adults can be exposed to toxic chemicals when they use plastic and recycled plastic products.
- National Policy Gaps: More than two dozen publications reviewing country-based data, mostly from low- and middle-income countries, almost all showing a lack of regulations and governmenttracking of toxic threats from plastics, suggesting a need for stronger global policies to address toxic plastics.
“IPEN’s global members have worked together to provide the scientific basis that demonstrates the need for a Plastics Treaty that addresses the overproduction of plastic and the importance of global controls on toxic plastic chemicals,” said Aileen Lucero, Co-chair of IPEN’s Plastics Working Group and National Coordinator of the Ecowaste Coalition in the Philippines. “More plastic production means more pollution, and our global data clearly show the need to regulate plastic chemicals throughout the life cycle, not only in products. We look forward to the INC and an outcome toward a meaningful Plastics Treaty.”
The map was developed by IPEN in collaboration with Annabelle Vuille, an Information & Data Visualization Designer and Researcher whose installation on the EU’s plastic waste exports was a Gold Winner at the 2024 Swiss Viz Awards, and Lloyd Richards, a developer and interaction engineer.