Commercial data is emerging as an essential tool in the global response to plastic pollution, offering new perspectives on plastics throughout their life cycle.
When plastic reaches landfills and pollutes rivers or the ocean, the most decisive decisions have already been made – during design, production choices and trade.
Thanks to world trade, plastics enter and leave countries in various forms – raw materials, products or packaging.
These flows largely determine the amount of plastic circulating on the markets and the pressure that waste management and recycling systems will ultimately face.
Until recently, commercial data played only a limited role in debates on plastic pollution, limiting the ability of decision-makers to respond to a global issue.
But the situation is changing with the plastic trade database of UN trade and development (UNCED).
It lists, for the first time, the cross-border movement of plastic from customs data declared by nearly 200 savings, covering the entire chain from raw materials to finished products and packaging.
What the data tells us
The database shows that the volume of plastics exchanged almost doubled between 2005 and 2023.
It also reveals the entry points of plastic into the markets, the value chains they cross and how commercial decisions made upstream shape future pollution risks.
While primary plastic forms still dominate global exports, the trade in finished plastic products continues to grow, exerting environmental pressures downstream.
« Customs data is a valuable resource for analyzing plastics in global trade, » said Anu Peltola, Director of Statistics, Data and Digital Services at UNCTAD.
« With researchers and scientists specializing in plastic pollution, UNCTAD has identified plastic products in about 5,000 customs codes in order to better understand global trade flows. »
Increased importance of quality data upstream of negotiations on the Plastics Treaty
Based on a prototype developed by UNCTAD with the Institute for Advanced International and Development Studies, this analysis now contributes to the development of new statistical guidelines published by the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research.
These guidelines help countries measure life-cycle plastic flows and use common definitions, facilitating global data comparability.
Their publication comes as countries are preparing to resume negotiations on a global plastics treaty, where the reliability of life cycle data is considered increasingly essential.
Informing the global dialogue between science and politics
In addition to plastics, UNCTAD also follows the trade in non-plastic substitutes.
These statistics shed light on regional trade analysis and negotiations by giving an idea of the size of the markets and the pricing treatment of alternatives likely to reduce plastic at the source.
Since 2016, non-plastic substitute exports from developing economies have increased by an average of 5.3% per year, reaching $203 billion in 2023 – a sign of their growing place in world markets.
Databases on plastics and substitutes together support global science-political assessments by identifying where plastic pollution risks appear and how a transition to alternative materials could reduce – or create – new environmental pressures.
A tangible impact on the ground
Statistical evidence has already contributed to policy development, including through the Sustainable Production and Environmental Pollution Program United Kingdom–UNCED.
This work supported Ghana’s national analysis of locally viable plastic substitutes and is guiding regional discussions in East Africa for single-use plastics regulation, standards and labelling, as well as the articulation of trade rules and environmental policies – particularly in the least developed countries where data and regulatory capabilities are often limited.
“In showing how plastics and substitute materials move through trade, these databases help governments harmonise trade policies and environmental action for the benefit of people and the planet,” said Chantal Line Carpentier, head of the trade, environment, climate change and sustainable development section at UNCTAD.
source : unctad
