A comprehensive understanding of the capacity of current policies and initiatives, under the umbrella of the Circular Economy, to address the challenges faced by the plastics sector is currently missing (i.e. environmental impacts in current value chains). The objective of this project is to measure the potential effects of circularity interventions on resource efficiency and environmental impacts for the EU Plastics Sector, considering a complete representation of the global economy and development scenarios towards 2050. This is achieved by producing an analytical tool – a prospective hybrid model. Hybrid, because it combines the high resolution of life cycle assessment (LCA) with the economy-wide completeness of input-output analysis (IOA). Prospective, because it will represent the technological and structural changes of both the plastics sector and the surrounding economy, on the background of future global development, such as the recent Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs).
