Capacity Development for Plastic Waste Management—A Critical Evaluation of Training Materials

Abstract

The emerging problems of plastic pollution and the mismanagement of plastic waste highlight the need to find a solution that involves adopting a systematic perspective. Capacity development is recognized as an approach that can tackle these problems on a global scale and improve the performance of waste management systems. This paper focuses on the educational and training aspects of capacity development by evaluating available teaching materials and their content regarding training topics and stakeholders. The methodology used for the evaluation of teaching materials was the weighting score method, which provided information about previously defined training topics and the extent to which they were present in the material. The results of the evaluation can be beneficial for all stakeholders involved in plastic waste management, organizations that are actively included in designing and publishing such materials, and groups who are focused on capacity development. The results of the evaluation are structured in such a way to provide easy access to certain material depending on t desired training topic or targeted stakeholder. Thus, the results of the evaluation can be used either directly in the training processes or indirectly as a baseline for the preparation of new teaching materials. The study also contributes to theory by analyzing stakeholders in plastic waste management and defining essential training topics. Moreover, the study has potential to be the benchmark for future research projects in the area of education for plastic waste management.