Research on plastic waste pollution based on coupling model

Abstract

In order to discuss to what extent plastic waste can be reduced to reach an environmentally safe level, we establish the coupling model of safety level and reduction degree, to study the relationship between the reduction degree of plastic waste and the environment safety level. In this model, we have introduced the Public Environmental Awareness Index, the disposable plastic waste recovery rate, and the effectiveness of policies to limit the use of disposable plastic, which constitute the Plastic Waste Reduction Index (DRL). Based on this, six indicators closely related to plastic waste were determined from three aspects, which are included in the environmental safety level index (ESL) by entropy method. Then, the grading evaluation table of environmental safety level was established based on the references. And through Pearson correlation analysis, we found that the level of environmental safety and disposable plastic waste reduction has a high correlation. Then we choose the European Union as the research object, and study the changes of ESL and DRL in the past ten years. Finally, we test the model by Correlation Coefficient analysis, the results show that our model is reasonable. Then through the calculation of the critical point, in order to make the environment reach the safe level, the degree that the disposable plastic waste should be reduced is obtained.