Public policies to mitigate plastic pollution and adhere to the circular economy: A case study from Ecuador
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22517/23447214.25344Keywords:
Circular Economy, Ecuador, Laws, Plastic, Policies, Polymer, WasteAbstract
Most plastics do not biodegrade, but fragment becoming microplastics that pollute air, water, and soil, where animals consume it and can reach the chain food, and drinking water. In addition, by 2050, it will have nearly 12,000 million tons of plastic waste in landfills and nature; therefore, the oceans will contain more plastic than fish. For this reason, this manuscript uses Ecuador as a case study of public management to apply actions that promote the industrialization of plastic waste and single-use plastics reduction, as well as the circular economy of this controversial material due to its overuse. The methodology is investigative-experimental because it collects local information on Ecuadorian actions and complements academic data from 2018 to 2022. The results present that Ecuador maintains several legal regulations for monitoring and controlling the reduction of single-use plastics, which is covered by The Law on Rationalization, Reuse, and Reduction of Single-Use Plastics, and the Law on Inclusive Circular Economy, serving these guidelines as a referential study case to other countries that seek to reduce the production and consumption of plastics. The need for a paradigm shift in how solid waste is generated, how it is dispatched, and how it is treated is evident. Ecuador has established a path forward concerning plastic waste, implementing a regulation that controls the processes of generating and recovering plastic material, encouraging the change from a linear economy to a circular one.
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