The growing number of initiatives tackling plastic pollution recently culminated in a United Nations resolution to create an international legally binding Treaty on Plastic Pollution. This Treaty will increase the requirement for companies to communicate their plastic impact due to reputational pressures, investor assessment, compliance needs and consumer choices.

This report aims to understand the plastic related metrics that companies are using (for plastic that is put on the market and the fate of the plastic waste created) and for what purpose they are using them. It opens the debate on the harmonization of plastic-related metrics for disclosure purposes – with the goal to develop a global corporate accountability framework that will allow tracking of corporate progress on their targets.

Universal plastics disclosure metrics would allow for the identification of excesses of types of materials and their geographic location, provide a better picture of mismanaged waste streams and associated opportunities for new circular business development, and help highlight the stranded assets of a linear economy.