- Trade data is emerging as a critical tool in the global response to plastic pollution, offering new insights into plastics across their full life cycle.
GENEVA, Switzerland – By the time plastic reaches landfills, and pollutes rivers or the ocean, the most consequential decisions have already been taken — in design, production choices and trade. Through global trade, plastics enter and leave countries in various forms – as raw materials, products or packaging.
These flows largely determine how much plastic circulates in markets and how much pressure waste and recycling systems will eventually face.
Until recently, trade data played only a limited role in plastic pollution debates, limiting policymakers’ ability to respond to an issue of global concern. But that’s changing with the plastics trade database of UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
It tracks, for the first time, plastics moving across borders using customs data reported by nearly 200 economies, covering the full range from raw materials to finished products and packaging.
It also reveals where plastics enter markets, which value chains they move through, and how early trade decisions shape future pollution risks.
While primary forms of plastics still dominate global exports, trade in finished plastic goods continues to grow, with downstream environmental pressures.
“Customs data are a great resource for analysing plastics in global trade,” said Anu Peltola, UNCTAD director of statistics, data and digital service.
“Together with plastic pollution researchers and scientists, UNCTAD identified plastic products across approximately 5,000 customs codes to better understand global trade flows.”
High-quality data gains urgency ahead of plastics treaty talks
Building on a prototype developed by UNCTAD with the Graduate Institute, this trade evidence is now feeding into new statistical guidelines released by the United Nations Environment Programme and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research.
These guidelines help countries measure plastic flows across their entire life cycle and use common definitions, making data more comparable worldwide.
Their release comes as countries prepare to resume negotiations on a global plastics treaty, where reliable life-cycle data is increasingly seen as essential.
Informing global science-policy dialogue
Alongside plastics, UNCTAD also tracks trade in non-plastic substitutes.
These statistics help inform regional trade analysis and negotiations by shedding light on market size and tariff treatment for alternatives that could reduce plastic at the source.
Since 2016, exports of non-plastic substitutes from developing economies have grown by an average of 5.3% per year, reaching $203 billion in 2023 – signaling their growing role in global markets.
Together, the plastics and substitutes databases support global science–policy assessments by identifying where plastic-related pollution risks arise and how shifts to alternative materials could reduce – or create – new environmental pressures.
Making a difference on the ground
The statistical evidence has already informed policy work, particularly through the UK–UNCTAD Sustainable Manufacturing and Environmental Pollution Programme.
It has supported Ghana’s national analysis of locally viable plastic substitutes and is helping shape regional discussions in East Africa on regulating single-use plastics, standards and labelling, linking trade rules with environmental policy – especially in least developed countries where data and regulatory capacity are often limited.
“By showing how plastics and substitute materials move through trade, these databases help governments align trade policies with environmental action for people and planet,” said Chantal Line Carpentier, head of the trade, environment, climate change and sustainable development branch at UNCTAD.
