Title page
Contents
Acknowledgements 5
Executive summary 6
Introduction 7
Aim of this report 7
What are plastics? 8
Global plastics production 10
Exposure to plastics in the workplace 12
Extraction and transportation 12
Plastics production 13
Waste management 16
Plastics and the health of workers 18
Chemical additives 18
Microplastics 22
Priority actions for protecting workers 25
ILO international labour standards 25
Other policy level actions 26
Multilateral environmental agreements relevant for plastics 28
Workplace level priority actions 30
Social dialogue 33
References 34
Figure 1. Properties of plastics 8
Figure 2. The six major polymer types 9
Figure 3. Common polymers and ways they are used (Thompson 2018) 9
Figure 4. Global primary plastics waste generation (in million metric tonnes) according to industrial use sector from 1950 to 2015 (Geyer et al. 2017) 10
Figure 5. Global production of bioplastics 2021, by market segment (European Bioplastics 2021) 11
Figure 6. The plastics lifecycle (UNEP 2021) 12
Figure 7. Plastic fume during plastic manufacturing (HSE n.d.) 13
Figure 8. Occupational exposure pathways and health impacts of chemicals in plastics production 14
Figure 9. Types of plastic additives (UNEP 2021) 19
Figure 10. The health effects of microplastics (Prata 2020) 23
Figure 11. Components of a workplace programme - an overview 30
Figure 12. The Hierarchy of Controls 31
Figure 13. An example of the Hierarchy of Controls for polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) exposure 32