Industry-sponsored study concludes recycling initiatives outperform cap on virgin plastic production
By 
Angeli Mehta2026-09-30T08:30:00
Cap would cost consumers more than landfill taxes but research didn’t consider health and environment under business-as-usual
Incentivising the collection and recycling of plastics would do more to boost recycling volumes than imposing a cap on virgin plastic production, according to modelling carried out by Oxford Economics.
The research was commissioned by the trade association of the global chemical industry, the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA). It suggested that in a scenario where global plastic production was gradually cut by 5%, prices would rise across the plastics value chain and the economic cost to households could be at least five times as high as with policies that focus on waste management.