Plastic Drawdown tool to help Maldives slash plastic waste by 85 percent, study reveals

OXFORD, England, Jan. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A STUDY published in the journal Global Environmental Change will today reveal a new policy tool developed by scientists could slash plastic waste.  

The paper forecasts that the new Plastic Drawdown tool is set to lead to reductions in plastic waste in the Maldives by some 85 percent by 2030.  

The Plastic Drawdown partnership is the brainchild of international social enterprise Common Seas.  

Experts say other countries should adopt the tool in a bid to lead the fight against plastic waste.  

The model gives governments the confidence and evidence base needed to create policy that could lead to radical reductions in plastic waste.  

The study was co-authored by experts at the University of Oxford, Imperial College London, Eunomia, Nekton, The Government of the Maldives and Common Seas.  

Scientists designed Plastic Drawdown for countries with limited data and used it in partnership with practitioners in Maldives to explore solutions to minimise plastic pollution.  

This means it can be used by the most in-need countries who have little information about their plastic consumption and waste. 

The Plastic Drawdown model was used in the Maldives, where it gave the Government the necessary evidence and confidence needed to announce and implement an ambitious phase out strategy for single use plastic. 

The analysis demonstrated how five policy solutions could prevent as much as 85 percent of plastic pollution by 2030, but that without action plastic pollution would rise by 45 percent.  

Common Seas is now seeking new partnerships to scale this work to new geographies in 2022 and beyond. 

Common Seas CEO Jo Royle said: "More than half of the world's most plastic polluting countries do not have an adequate plan in place to tackle plastic pollution.  

"The Maldives, a beautiful country tainted by the curse of plastic waste, is showing ambition and real leadership on this issue.  

"In 2022 we are excited to see the Plastic Drawdown model rolled out across the world."  

A spokesman for the President of the Maldives said: "Plastic Drawdown was critical in building the case for phasing out single-use plastics across the Maldives.  

"The model gave the Maldivian government the confidence to set an ambitious target to phase out single-use plastics by 2023, as announced by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih at the UN General Assembly in 2019."