Plastics leakage has become a pressing issue for many developing countries. While a number of development cooperation initiatives with a focus on tackling plastic pollution have recently emerged, there is currently no comprehensive assessment of the volume and scope of international development cooperation in this area.
This report contributes to fill this gap by bringing together the OECD’s unique statistical sources and expertise. The paper assesses the scale of the plastic pollution problem in developing countries by providing evidence on developing countries’ plastic use, waste, and leakage volumes, and assessing the specificity of plastics-related impacts in developing countries.
It also quantifies development cooperation support in this area through a refined methodology developed as part of the OECD Sustainable Ocean for All Initiative.