Reducing plastic pollution before and after natural-hazard related disasters: strategies for disaster-resilient plastic waste management

This Policy Analysis Exercise (PAE) examines how disasters caused by natural hazards contribute to plastic waste leakage and what strategies can be used to build more resilient waste management systems. Drawing on case studies from Antigua and Barbuda, Nigeria and Alaska, it demonstrates how infrastructure vulnerabilities, limited capacity, and low perceived health risks contribute to plastic pollution during and after disasters.

Based on the UNDRR Principles for Resilient Infrastructure, the following recommendations are proposed to strengthen disaster resilience in waste management systems:

• Continuously learning: Invest in robust waste data collection systems and early warning systems
• Proactively protected: Invest in long-term landfill planning, infrastructure maintenance, and emergency management access
• Environmentally integrated: Upcycle plastic via local circular economies and actively maintain surrounding ecosystems
• Socially engaged: Leverage community efforts to increase awareness
• Shared responsibility: Foster collaboration across levels and sectors; coordinate expertise between waste management and disaster functions
• Adaptively transforming: Tailor waste management solutions to local context; build in flexibility to reevaluate strategies

This study underscores the need for disaster-resilient waste systems that reduce plastic leakage, protect communities and ecosystems, and adapt to increasingly frequent and intense hazard events.