Plastics play an essential role in modern society, but also lead to significant impacts on the environment and climate. Reducing such impacts while retaining the usefulness of plastics requires a shift towards a more circular and sustainable plastics system. This report tells the story of plastics, and their effect on the environment and climate, and looks at their place in a European circular economy.

This report introduces the wide family of plastics and briefly explores the main challenges involved in transitioning towards a circular plastics economy. This report shows that although the production, use and trade of plastics continue to grow, significant differences exist between Europe and other regions of the world. Furthermore, it explains the environmental and climate impacts that occur across the life cycle of plastics, including the leakage of plastics into natural environments and the growing demand for oil and emissions of greenhouse gases. 

Finally, this report shows that an increasing number of EU initiatives are already in place to address some of these issues, but that more coordination and scaling up is needed. In addition, the three pathways (smarter use; increased circularity; and use of renewable raw materials and decarbonisation) are discussed, in order to emphasis the importance of continued longer term move towards a sustainable and circular plastics system.