Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS FEATURE

Three ways to solve the plastics pollution crisis

Researchers are studying how more-sophisticated policies, smarter recycling and new materials could stem the tide of waste.
  1. Diana Kwon

    1. Diana Kwon is a freelance science journalist based in Berlin.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Man walks through a canal which is blocked by piles of plastic waste and food waste dumped, Bangladesh, Dhaka.

A canal blocked by waste, including discarded plastic, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Credit: Ahmed Salahuddin/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

Two decades ago, Germany set up a simple scheme to reduce plastic waste. When people buy drinks in a disposable plastic bottle, they pay a small extra fee and get that back by depositing the used bottle at a return centre. Many other countries have similar incentives.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 616, 234-237 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00975-5

References

  1. OECD. Global Plastics Outlook: Policy Scenarios to 2060 (OECD Publications, 2022).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Lau, W. W. Y. et al. Science 369, 1455–1461 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Yoshida, S. et al. Science 351, 1196–1199 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Uekert, T. et al. ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 11, 965–978 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Sullivan, K. P. et al. Science 378, 207–211 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Manker, L. P. et al. Nature Chem. 14, 976–984 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links