Same plastic, same footprint? Towards a harmonized plastic footprint benchmark

The Plastic Treaty mandates urgent measures to curb plastic pollution, yet fragmented strategies across regions persist, calling for a holistic approach for plastics production and waste disposal. We introduce a harmonized footprint benchmark evaluating carbon emission, resource depletion, and environmental risk across the lifecycle of conventional and bioplastics in both Europe and China by using seven indicators. These indicators are integrated into a Footprint Impact Score and a Sustainability Index Score. Results show that China’s coal energy mix and a number of chemical additives results in 20–50% higher footprint than Europe. The harmonized benchmark reveals disparities due to resource, energy and ecotoxicity performance: in Europe, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) scored (0.87) and polypropylene (PP) (0.82) comparing to HDPE (0.71) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) (0.69) in China, while polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) rank the lowest in both regions. The proposed benchmark aims to support evidence-based policies and industries for a just and safe transition.