Community of Practice to Harmonize Approaches for Informing Action on Plastic Pollution and Marine Litter aims to become the primary coordination mechanism between organisations supporting action planning on plastics and marine litter, providing support for the development, implementation, reporting and review of action planning.

Community of Practice on Informing Action​

Draft Report on KPIs and Areas of Harmonization

Harmonization and shared Metadata for plastics

Data Harmonization Workbook

GPML CoP's work on plastic modeling and monitoring methodlogies harmonization

Comparison of Key Plastic Waste Indicator Values of Different Monitoring and Modelling Methodologies

This Community of Practice (CoP) on Plastic Monitoring and Assessment Harmonization addresses harmonization, interoperability and data comparability across lifecycle stages, including possible data and methodology subgroups on plastics in the economy, plastic waste, and plastics in the environment.

Community of Practice on Plastic Monitoring and Assessment Harmonization  

Generating and accessing accurate plastic data is essential for planning, implementing, and monitoring how plastics move through the economy and leak into the environment. However, significant gaps in data availability and accessibility have posed a challenge for many countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
In the downstream of plastics value chain, diversity of monitoring methodologies has prevented the generation of comparable information on plastic leakage to the environment. In the upstream of plastics value chain, significant issues remain in understanding the state of materials flow of plastics in the economy (e.g. production, design, and consumption trends). Simply put, monitoring and data management at national levels lags behind the need for effective policymaking.
Compiled datasets and reports are often fragmented and dispersed or sit unused in data storages or file cabinets.  In this context, enhancing accessibility to both quantitative and qualitative data is essential for promoting evidence-based and context-sensitive strategic planning. In addition, having access to a wide range of policy-relevant tools and information (e.g. those on the state of national actions and implementation challenges) can encourage mutual learning and cooperation among countries and stakeholders, further strengthening effective actions against marine plastic at the local, national, and global level. 
In the light of the above, this seminar examines some of the existing initiatives to generate, compile and share policy-relevant information as the basis of promoting evidence-based policymaking (EBPM) and enhancing collaboration on actions against plastic pollution, including in the marine environment.  

Promoting Evidence-based Policymaking to Tackle Marine Plastic Pollution in Asia-Pacific

Regulatory instruments on innovation

The number of affirmative regulations defined in policy documents,  on development of new or improved processes and products relating to plastics

Floating microplastics, fine sampling method

Amount of floating microplastic particles collected using nets with mesh size 0.3 - 0.35 mm (2012-2022)


Plastic waste - Import

Value of imported plastic waste in million US dollars by country per year

Plastic waste - value (import)

Plastic leakage - openly burnt (% of generated plastic)

The proportion of plastic waste openly burnt as a percentage of total plastic generated

Plastic waste - openly burnt

Municipal solid waste generated daily per capita

Municipal solid waste generated daily per capita - country-level

Final manufactured plastic goods - Export

Value of exported final manufactured plastics goods in million US dollars by country per year

Final manufactured plastic goods - value (export)

Proportion of municipal waste recycled

Proportion of municipal waste recycled annually (2000-2021)

Threat to coral reefs

Coral reef habitat proximity to a river mouth of a river modelled to emit more than 1 tonne of plastic/year into the ocean

Plastic beach litter per 100 m

Plastic-Beach litter items visually counted and calculated per 100 m

Plastic waste - Export

Weight of exported plastic waste in 1000 metric tonnes by country per year

Plastic waste - weight (export)

Plastic waste generation from municipal solid waste (kg/capita/year)

The sum of plastic waste in municipal solid waste per capita per year

Plastic waste generated from municipal solid waste annually per capita

Final manufactured plastics goods - Import

Weight of imported final manufactured plastics goods in 1000 metric tonnes by country per year

Final manufactured plastic goods - weight (import)

Intermediate manufactured plastic goods - Export

Value of exported intermediate manufactured plastic goods in million US dollars by country per year

Intermediate manufactured plastic goods - value (export)

Plastic waste generation from municipal solid waste (tonnes/day)

The sum of plastic waste in municipal solid waste per day

Plastic waste generated from municipal solid waste daily

Unmanaged plastic waste (% of plastic waste generation)

The proportion of uncollected plastic waste and plastic waste that leaks out into the environment from the municipal solid waste management system per year

Plastic waste leakage into the environment

Intermediate forms of plastic - Import

Weight of imported intermediate forms of plastic in 1000 metric tonnes by country per year

Intermediate forms of plastic - weight (import)

Municipal solid waste generated annually

Value of exported plastic waste in million US dollars by country per year

Plastic waste - value (export)

Regulatory instruments on education and outreach

The number of information instruments on education and outreach on plastics that are defined in policy documents in the country

SPOT: Openly burned plastic emissions [t·y⁻¹]

Total annual plastic emissions openly burnt

Openly burnt plastic emissions annually

Proportion of plastic waste generated 

The proportion of plastic waste generated out of total municipal solid waste generated

Municipal solid waste plastic composition – city-level

Plastic packaging - Export (weight)

Weight of exported plastic packaging in 1000 metric tonnes by country per year

Plastic packaging - weight (export)

Cash for return schemes

The number of cash for return schemes identified in policy documents in the country

Weight of exported final manufactured plastic goods in 1000 metric tonnes by country per year

Final manufactured plastic goods - weight (export)

Municipal solid waste plastic composition 

Percentage of plastic in municipal solid waste

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