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A Comprehensive Analysis of Plastics and Microplastic Legislation Worldwide

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Abstract

Aquatic or land-based plastic pollution has raised serious concerns for ecosystems, and especially human and animal health worldwide. A variety of legislative instruments were developed to control, reduce, and manage the usage of plastics in day-to-day life to minimize the adverse outcomes brought by sending these plastic to landfill. Existing legislation heavily embraces levies, bans, and voluntary efforts through “reduce and reuse campaigns.” Thus, the present review highlights the pros and cons of the existing legislation and its implementation. It also assesses the need for the improvement of plastic legislation to better consider environmental and human health impacts. The paper proposes new efficient management strategies to aid in the development of plastic legislation which prevents increase of plastic pollution worldwide, the potential challenges that would arise from its implementation, and the mechanisms for overcoming these challenges. The paper proposes a conventional management strategy based on the current plastic management and legislation. It aims to improve the feasibility and effectiveness of the implementation of future plastic policies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Swire Institute of Marine Science and School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, China

    Chung-Sum Lam

  2. Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi, India

    Soundaram Ramanathan

  3. Global Centre for Environmental Remediation, The University of Newcastle, Newcastle, NSW, 2258, Australia

    Maddison Carbery, Kelsey Gray & Thavamani Palanisami

  4. Priority Research Centre for Healthy Lungs, Hunter Medical Research Institute and The University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia

    Kanth Swaroop Vanka

  5. International Centre for Balanced Land Use, The University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia

    Cristelle Maurin & Richard Bush

Authors
  1. Chung-Sum Lam
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  2. Soundaram Ramanathan
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  3. Maddison Carbery
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  4. Kelsey Gray
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  5. Kanth Swaroop Vanka
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  6. Cristelle Maurin
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  7. Richard Bush
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  8. Thavamani Palanisami
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Correspondence to Thavamani Palanisami.

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Lam, CS., Ramanathan, S., Carbery, M. et al. A Comprehensive Analysis of Plastics and Microplastic Legislation Worldwide. Water Air Soil Pollut 229, 345 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-018-4002-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-018-4002-z

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