Notes

Only if residents are educated about the problems that such pollution causes can public opinion be mobilized to support government policies that advance the principles and practices of a circular economy.

NOTES

1. Macroplastics are plastic items with a size of at least 5 millimeters, and microplastics are smaller than 5 millimeters. 2. The figures estimated by Jambeck et al. (2015) are unique for their global coverage, but this comprehensiveness comes with the caveat that, for some countries, the estimates of marine-plastic debris may be less precise and deviate from estimates in country-specific studies. Still, the Jambeck et al. (2015) figures are widely recognized and often used as a benchmark to compare the discharge of plastic debris into the oceans across countries. 3. Microplastics are divided into two types: primary and secondary. Examples of primary microplastics are found in personal-care products; plastic pellets (or nurdles, which are the size of a lentil) used in industrial manufacturing; and plastic fibers used in synthetic textiles (for example, nylon). Secondary microplastics are ones that result from the fragmentation of larger pieces through exposure to, for example, wave action, wind abrasion, and ultraviolet radiation from sunlight. 4. These fish species are the European pilchard (Sardina pilchardus) and the

European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus). 5. The ROPME refers to the RSA as the sea area at the most northwestern part of the Indian Ocean, surrounded by the eight ROPME member states:

Bahrain, Iraq, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi

Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. 6. The five major gyres—large systems of rotating ocean currents—are the

North and South Pacific Subtropical Gyres, the North and South Atlantic

Subtropical Gyres, and the Indian Ocean Subtropical Gyre. 7. The major oceanic zones are the North Pacific, South Pacific, North

Atlantic, South Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. 8. In terms of mass, the Mediterranean contains 5–10 percent of global microplastics, with the small average particle size accounting for the differences between counts and mass (van Sebille et al. 2015). 9. Ocean plastic can persist in a sea’s surface waters, eventually accumulating in remote areas of the world’s oceans. In the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP)—a major plastic-accumulation zone formed in subtropical waters between California and Hawaii—at least 46 percent of the GPGP mass consisted of fishing nets (Roman et al. 2020). 10. The reasons for this level of human ingestion are (a) the amount of plastic produced in recent decades, which has been increasing at a steady rate of 4 percent a year; and (b) the primary use of plastic as a disposable material, with large amounts of plastic waste not adequately managed, as noted earlier. 11. The midpoint of the 4–8 percent range is taken as the plastic industry’s share of global oil production and growth rates of consumption, in line with projected industry growth of 3.8 percent annually 2015–30 and 3.5 percent annually 2030–50. Increases in efficiency are limited (EMAF 2016).

12. For more information, see the SwitchMed website: https://switchmed.eu/. 13. The estimate is based on analysis of five Asian countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam (Engel, Stuchtey, and Vanthournout 2016). 14. Countries consulted were Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and all of the GCC countries. Issues with data availability for SUP items and their alternatives restricted the inclusion of other economies in the analysis.

The websites consulted were https://www.luluhypermarket.com/; https:// www.desertcart.ae/; https://egypt.souq.com/eg-ar/; https://www.noon .com/; and https://www.ubuy.com.kw/. The data were obtained on

December 2, 2020. 15. Prices were standardized to relate to a single unit of each good; however, batch sizes may vary where that variation was unavoidable. Such differences could distort per unit prices. Furthermore, purchases from wholesale distributors by commercial clients, such as restaurants or catering services, most likely involve varying prices (and price discrepancies) and are not reflected in this analysis. 16. Data are from the EUROMAP (2016) comparison of production, consumption, and imports of plastic resins for the Middle East region. Changes in inventories produced in a previous year are not considered, leading to potential deviations. The EUROMAP report considers the Middle East only in the aggregate—that is, it does not include North African countries, Egypt, or Djibouti. However, it is reasonable to assume that much of the plastic consumed in these countries is imported from Middle East producers in intraregional trade. 17. For ethane and natural gas, these prices are significantly lower than ones from comparable global markets, with prices of the latter 50–300 percent higher. Furthermore, fixing the prices of inputs gives companies an advantage by easing their planning of production costs and capacities. 18. Globally, around one-third of produced food ends up as waste (FAO 2011).

This problem is likely accentuated in GCC countries: for example, survey respondents in Saudi Arabia stated that more than 75 percent of food purchased is discarded every week to make room for new groceries (Baig et al. 2019). 19. Coated plastic excludes sterilized aseptics, beverage cartons, and coffee cups for which the lamination weight or double-sided application mean they are recyclable only in a specialized recycling facility. 20. For example, the European industrial composting standard EN 13432 could be mandated where industrial-equivalent composting is available and effective. 21. Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO), “Technical

Regulation for Degradable Plastic Products,” No. M.A-156-16-03-03,

Official Gazette, October 14, 2016. 22. Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology (ESMA), “Standard & Specification for Oxo-biodegradation of Plastic Bags and Other Disposable

Plastic Objects”; “Specific Requirements for the Registration of Oxo-

Biodegradable Plastic Objects according to UAE Standard 5009: 2009” (Revision 1, March 1, 2014). 23. See “Regular Members,” ESYF website: http://esyf.gr/o-syndesmos/esyf -members/.