August 9, 2025 08:44

During the ongoing INC-5.2 negotiations for a global treaty to combat plastic pollution, held this week in Geneva, the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA) — the global voice of the chemical industry — announced a significant expansion of its Plastic Additives Database, which now includes 4,500 entries.

Alongside these enhancements, ICCA released a new analysis (PDF download) identifying 4,549 plastics additives in commerce today, 94.5% of which are on at least one major chemicals regulatory inventory. Furthermore, 90% of the plastic additives verified in commerce have readily accessible toxicological data to help inform a risk assessment, challenging claims of widespread data gaps on plastic additives.

According to the association, these enhancements demonstrate the chemical industry’s commitment to transparency and to the safe, responsible management of chemicals, directly addressing concerns over data gaps for this category of products.

The Plastic Additives Database serves as a centralized, vetted resource for governments, regulatory bodies, researchers and NGOs seeking reliable scientific data on plastic additives. It can also help streamline regulatory processes worldwide.

“The ICCA database is the most comprehensive international resource of its kind,” said Marco Mensink, ICCA secretary and director general of Cefic. “By aggregating and sharing this information on plastic additives we are supporting capacity-building efforts and more informed chemicals management worldwide. This shows our industry’s commitment to transparency and to strengthening global chemicals management.”

ICCA plans to continue enriching the database with regular updates and new features. Governments, regulatory authorities, academia, NGOs, media and other interested parties can register for access at iccadatabase.com.

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