A solution to the ‘wicked problem’ of plastics requires their effective management, not at

end-of-life, but throughout their life-cycle. Designing plastic products with the underpinning

approach of life-cycle thinking, and as part of a plastics circular economy, is one of the solutions.

We specifically address this from a European Union (EU) perspective where the development

of life-cycle thinking within regulatory frameworks is becoming established. This sits

within the international framework presaged by UNEA Resolution 5/14, which sets out the

negotiating mandate for a global plastics treaty, and which declares that ‘plastic pollution,

in marine and other environments, can be of a transboundary nature and needs to be tackled,

together with its impacts, through a full lifecycle approach, taking into account national circumstances

and capabilities’.