Talk:Plastic pollution

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 24 January 2022 and 16 May 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): LondonJ123 (article contribs). This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 10 January 2022 and 27 April 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Carterjmatte (article contribs). This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 17 January 2022 and 1 May 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Schw1890 (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Degra067, WRICE00, Gray0696, Mconowall.

Wiki Education assignment: Introduction to Policy Analysis

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 18 June 2023 and 12 July 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Peer reviewers: Chloeurofsky.

Semi-protected edit request on 29 November 2024

Remove red link to "Polymer Fibres" Red link can be found at the "Causes" section in the sentence "It is estimated that this waste is made up of 81% polymer resin, 13% polymer fibres and 32% polymer additives." The2gingerman (talk) 14:29, 29 November 2024 (UTC)

 Done Created a new redirect where the redlink pointed to. FifthFive (talk) 19:57, 29 November 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 9 January 2025

i am wondering to just add a short paragraph about a relevant recent study (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adr3837) in the "policy" section. Nkfj103 (talk) 21:51, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. You can prepare a draft of the text you want to be added based on the reference, and resubmit/reopen the edit request. LizardJr8 (talk) 23:08, 9 January 2025 (UTC)

I am wondering to insert the text (below) in between "as is solid waste management in Togo and Senegal." and "Voluntary reduction efforts failing".

Forecast of Policy Effectiveness

A 2024 study in Science magazine built a machine learning model to predict trends in plastic production, trade, and waste management up to 2050 and simulate the effects of policy interventions. The results showed that if the current situation continues, plastic waste due to improper management will nearly double to 121 million metric tons (Mt) by 2050, and plastic-related greenhouse gas emissions are expected to increase by 37%, reaching 3.35 billion tons (CO2 equivalent of 3.09 to 3.54). However, when simulating eight treaty policies, it was found that just four of these policies could reduce plastic waste and related greenhouse gases by 91% and by one-third, respectively. 128.210.107.129 (talk) 23:00, 10 January 2025 (UTC)

References

Semi-protected edit request on 13 January 2025

I am wondering to insert the text (below) in between "as is solid waste management in Togo and Senegal." and "Voluntary reduction efforts failing".

Forecast of Policy Effectiveness

A 2024 study in Science magazine built a machine learning model to predict trends in plastic production, trade, and waste management up to 2050 and simulate the effects of policy interventions. The results showed that if the current situation continues, plastic waste due to improper management will nearly double to 121 million metric tons (Mt) by 2050, and plastic-related greenhouse gas emissions are expected to increase by 37%, reaching 3.35 billion tons (CO2 equivalent of 3.09 to 3.54). However, when simulating eight treaty policies, it was found that just four of these policies could reduce plastic waste and related greenhouse gases by 91% and by one-third, respectively.

Comments

I worked a lot of this article for a few hours. Sometimes aggressively, sometimes hands-off. What readers want possibly differs from what many editors are contributing. IMHO.

• Readers should be provided unadorned facts:
  • How much plastic pollution is produced? We have good data. Sources are listed in a chronological order. It is debatable if that approach is desirable.
  • What are the main kinds of plastic pollution? Probably correlates with the production data on various polymers that comprise plastics. We lack this info.
  • What is the fate of the waste plastic?
    • negative impacts such as on wildlife. Powerful but often anecdotal.
    • recycling, degradation, incineration. Real data exist.
• Some problematic or confusing content.
  • advocacy or scare-stories, antibusiness comments. Anecdotal and unconvincing.
  • excessive life-cycle analysis (mostly removed by me). One could track "plastic pollution" all the way back to the production of the polymers. Such as how much CO2 is generated in cracking ethane, etc. Those considerations are outside the scope of this article.
  • lots of country by country info. Often dated and possibly useless or pointless.
  • some content on social movements. I dont know if that content belongs here. A magnet for social advocacy. My 2c.

--Smokefoot (talk) 18:39, 9 May 2026 (UTC)