00:01 Hello and welcome to this training video
00:04 on the Plastic Pollution Assessment Methodology Suitability toolkit,
00:07 or PLAST for short.
00:09 I'm Doctor Kosta Veli,
00:10 academic at the University of Leeds.
00:13 In this video,
00:14 together with my colleague,
00:15 Doctor Josh Cotton,
00:16 we will introduce you to PLAST
00:18 and explain what it is used for,
00:20 provide instructions on how to open and run the toolkit,
00:23 and demonstrate guided examples of the toolkit in use.
00:30 The visible scar of plastic pollution on almost every
00:33 shoreline combined with striking images of harm it causes
00:37 and grim projections of future realities if action is not taken.
00:42 Has led to plastic pollution rising up the global agenda
00:45 to become a leading priority of many governments,
00:48 organizations and companies.
00:51 Fortunately,
00:52 the global community has begun to respond to this challenge,
00:55 developing and applying
00:57 plastic pollution assessment methodologies at a staggering rate.
01:01 However,
01:02 the number of these methodologies seemingly er growing by the day,
01:06 it is becoming increasingly hard
01:08 for potential users
01:09 to differentiate between them,
01:11 and more importantly,
01:13 decide which methodologies are best suited
01:15 to meet their needs.
01:17 With this in mind,
01:18 the University of Leeds,
01:20 in collaboration with Deltares,
01:22 IUCN
01:23 David Newbit
01:24 Associates,
01:25 and
01:26 have developed the the plus toolkit on behalf and for the World Bank
01:31 to characterize and prioritize plastic pollution assessment methodologies,
01:35 depending on the user's objectives and level of resources.
01:39 Now Plus has many different potential users,
01:42 for example.
01:44 National and regional governments tasked with setting goals,
01:49 developing strategies and monitoring
01:51 and reporting their progress towards those targets
01:54 may wish to use the tool to identify
01:56 which methodologies best support their needs.
02:00 Similarly,
02:00 non-governmental organizations
02:02 may also want to apply the tool
02:04 to help identify which assessment methodologies
02:07 can support any national priorities
02:09 or address any internal needs.
02:13 Businesses may wish to better understand their plastic pollution footprint,
02:17 using the toolkit to narrow down the potential options of methodologies
02:21 to just those that can help them.
02:24 Whereas local authorities,
02:26 often tasked with the responsibility of mitigating this plastic pollution,
02:30 may use the toolkit to highlight assessment methodologies
02:34 that may enable them to understand
02:37 how and where to intervene.
02:43 Lastly,
02:43 academics
02:44 and developers of plastic pollution methodologies
02:47 may want to use plas to better characterize and compare their methods to others.
02:58 So what do we mean by a plastic
03:00 pollution
03:01 assessment methodology?
03:04 Well,
03:05 we define this as any implementable methodology
03:09 that quantifies macroplastic pollution,
03:11 providing knowledge and understanding in order to effectively act.
03:16 To narrow down the innumerable different protocols,
03:19 frameworks and methodologies,
03:20 we set our selection criteria
03:23 as follows.
03:25 Firstly,
03:26 we decided to only include plastic pollution methodologies
03:30 that provide knowledge on how to effectively act.
03:33 In this sense,
03:35 data collection protocols which simply quantify plastic
03:38 pollution as a means to generate data without
03:41 providing any insights into the sources,
03:44 time dependence,
03:45 pathways,
03:46 or mitigating interventions
03:48 were excluded.
03:50 As plastic pollution is also the primary focus of this toolkit,
03:54 assessment methodologies that only considered other parts of the life cycle,
03:59 for example,
04:00 plastic waste trade or plastic waste generation,
04:03 without including an element of plastic waste leakage,
04:06 were also excluded.
04:09 Our 3rd selection criterion signifies
04:11 that we take here a broad stance,
04:14 except in toolkits applied anywhere in the world.
04:17 However,
04:18 we limit the selection criteria to exclude assessment methodologies
04:22 that only assess microplastics.
04:26 Lastly,
04:26 as the aim of the toolkit is to suggest methodologies which can be applied by a user,
04:31 here we limit the selection criteria
04:34 to only include methodologies which can be
04:36 practically be implemented in UK studies.
04:39 Therefore,
04:40 plastic pollution assessment methodologies,
04:42 which are still under development or cannot be applied to other locations,
04:46 are excluded.
04:50 In total,
04:51 over 30 methodologies have been initially
04:53 identified matching our inclusion criteria.
04:57 This ranged from methods focused on counting plastic wastes and beaches
05:01 right through to global hydrological models.
05:04 However,
05:05 we saw lots of variation between the methodologies
05:08 in terms of their scope,
05:10 scale,
05:10 and primary factors.
05:12 We noted they all followed
05:15 one of the four main approaches
05:17 as shown here.
05:20 Transfer coefficient approach is
05:22 a top-down method where flows are distributed
05:26 according to coefficients.
05:28 For example,
05:29 the amount of mismanaged waste which may enter oceans.
05:33 When applied as the primary method,
05:34 the transfer coefficient approach is typically adept at requiring low resources
05:38 and giving gross estimations
05:40 of plastic pollution to get policy.
05:43 Transfer coefficient approaches tend to provide
05:45 a simplistic overview of the plastic flows
05:48 in the solid waste management
05:50 and wider system.
05:53 Material flow analysis aims to model the flows and stocks of plastic waste
05:58 within a solid waste management system
06:00 to a much greater detail
06:01 than used in transfer coefficient-based approaches.
06:05 Material flow analysis approaches tend to be used,
06:07 for example,
06:08 when a more detailed assessment
06:10 of the system
06:11 in er use is required.
06:15 Statistical or trend analysis
06:18 are a bottom-up
06:20 approach,
06:20 typically used to understand the amount
06:22 of plastic pollution in different environmental compartments
06:26 by measurements in the field.
06:28 Results give a snapshot
06:30 of the amount of plastic pollution in an area at a moment in time,
06:34 but can be conducted over longer periods to monitor changes.
06:39 Lastly,
06:40 hydrological and transport modeling approaches
06:43 aims to harness the considerable experience that has been
06:47 amassed in hydrological modules and transfer this
06:50 to the problem of plastic pollution.
06:52 Typically using geographical information systems analysis,
06:56 this approach is primarily focused to understand
06:59 how plastic pollution in the environment may move
07:02 and transfer to the ocean
07:03 by combining estimates of terrestrial or riverine plastics
07:07 with information on rainfall and river characteristics and so on.
07:11 We acknowledge that there is a significant overlap between these approaches,
07:15 for example,
07:16 transfer coefficients,
07:18 um.
07:19 Uh,
07:19 are,
07:20 are an integral part of material flow analysis approach or can be.
07:24 However,
07:24 we believe that these four approaches
07:26 can be used in varying degrees within a methodology,
07:29 and more importantly provide the ability to answer different questions
07:33 with a different level of resources
07:35 and accuracy.
07:36 Crucially,
07:38 we do not make any assumptions on the
07:40 comparative scientific merit or accuracy of those approaches,
07:44 instead,
07:45 only using them to highlight the type of approach
07:48 which may be best suited,
07:50 depending on a user's needs
07:51 and resources.
07:59 We will now move to explain how the blast works.
08:02 The premise of blast is that it tries to match the user's need
08:06 to different methodological approaches
08:08 and assessment methodologies.
08:11 To do this,
08:12 all methodologies have been characterized by a framework
08:15 that consists of three
08:16 main parts.
08:18 Part A
08:19 relates to the high level policies and strategies
08:23 that a methodology may be able to support,
08:26 as well as the general level of resources required to undertake the assessment.
08:31 Part B relates to the more technical
08:33 outputs that an assessment methodology may generate.
08:36 Part C relates to the data requirements of the methodology.
08:41 Now,
08:41 we will discuss in a moment how the Plus framework
08:44 further breaks down each of these three main parts into a number of subcategories
08:49 that can relate directly
08:50 to specific user needs.
08:52 However,
08:53 in essence,
08:54 if we can characterize both the needs of the user
08:57 and the abilities of the methodology by the same framework,
09:00 we can then prioritize which methodologies are the most
09:04 suitable to the user.
09:07 So taking a more detailed look now at the framework,
09:10 starting with Part A,
09:12 policy related objectives.
09:15 This is broken down into 45 subcategories.
09:19 Let's consider what attributes a user may want to specify in this.
09:24 Objectives relates to the states at which they're acting on the plastic pollution,
09:28 for example,
09:29 developing baselines,
09:30 drafting action plans,
09:32 monitoring the impact
09:33 of interventions,
09:34 and so on.
09:36 For assessment scale,
09:37 they are looking at a national level of assessment or something more localized
09:42 for the scope.
09:44 What is the primary output the user wants to understand,
09:46 for instance,
09:47 are they interested in quantifying the sources of plastic pollution,
09:51 or do they want to understand how polluted the environment currently is?
09:56 Likewise,
09:57 which environmental compartment the user
09:59 is most interested in,
10:01 water or land?
10:02 And lastly,
10:03 what level of resources can the user allocate towards applying and assessment?
10:09 The same approach is taken for Part B,
10:12 technical objectives.
10:13 However,
10:14 there are 8 subcategories here
10:16 covering everything from the spatial resolution required
10:19 to the waste and resources management system resolution.
10:23 As well as specific functionalities of the assessment methodologies
10:27 and key insights,
10:28 they may be used to inform possible interventions.
10:33 Part C,
10:33 on the other hand,
10:34 looks at the data requirements of the methodology
10:37 and is formed only of two subcategories.
10:40 The first
10:41 tries to match the data needs of the assessment to the data that users
10:45 may have available or is willing to collect.
10:49 Whereas the second
10:50 ascertains how important is that a methodology can use proxy or default data.
10:58 Suggestions on the most suitable methodologies are presented to a user
11:03 according to a multi-criteria decision making algorithm.
11:07 Each of these three main parts has a series
11:09 of questions relating to the subcategories we've just seen.
11:13 The options
11:14 for that subcategory,
11:16 for instance,
11:16 various scales of the methodology that works out,
11:19 are also shown to the user,
11:20 as well as a series of selectable answers
11:23 that allow them to specify the importance of a methodology
11:26 having that option.
11:28 These may be a simple yes
11:30 or no answer,
11:31 for example,
11:32 in regards to data availability,
11:34 be high,
11:34 medium or low answers,
11:36 such as for resources availability.
11:39 Or
11:40 the essential,
11:41 important,
11:41 preferred,
11:42 and nonessential answers as it is the case for the majority of the questions.
11:47 Now as the user answers the questions,
11:50 and in doing so outlining their objectives,
11:52 requirements and resources,
11:54 the toolkit compares these inputs to its assessment framework database.
11:59 Methodologies that meet all essential criteria
12:01 are selected as potentially suitable candidates.
12:04 These are then ranked according to the number of options
12:08 that they have been specified as important,
12:10 and then
12:11 the number of specified as preferred,
12:13 and then
12:13 by the method with the closest match to data availability.
12:17 Finally,
12:18 if multiple methodologies are still ranked equally after this,
12:21 the methods are shown alphabetically.
12:24 We will now move on,
12:26 on another section of our training video,
12:29 demonstrating how to open Plast.
12:36 Plus has been developed using Microsoft Excel
12:39 and harnesses Visual Basic for Application,
12:41 or VBA for short,
12:43 to provide an interactive graphical user interface.
12:46 However,
12:46 to use Plast,
12:48 Microsoft Excel must be configured to enable
12:50 macros and access the VBA application.
12:54 To do this,
12:55 first open a new Microsoft Excel workbook.
12:59 Then click Options.
13:00 This is under the File menu in old versions.
13:03 Click Trust Center.
13:08 Then trust sent to settings.
13:11 Navigate to macro settings in the left toolbar.
13:15 Then
13:16 ensure the option
13:16 called Disable VBA Macros except digitally signed macros is ticked,
13:21 as well as the Trust access to the VBA Project Object model.
13:25 You can then click OK and OK again to save these settings.
13:29 Finally,
13:30 quit Excel.
13:31 Next we need to install the Toolit digital certificate.
13:34 A digital certificate is a security feature added to VBA projects to
13:38 verify that they are safe and unmodified from the official release.
13:42 Firstly,
13:43 ensure Plast is safe in a trusted location,
13:46 preferably not on a shared network drive.
13:48 We recommend My Documents.
13:51 Then
13:51 open plast.
13:54 A yellow security warning ribbon
13:56 should display at the top.
13:58 Click Enable Content.
14:00 If a pop-up message appears at this point about making this a trusted document,
14:04 click yes to this.
14:05 Otherwise,
14:06 proceed to click the options button in the security warning ribbon.
14:11 Go to show signature details in the pop-up window,
14:15 then
14:15 view certificate.
14:18 Finally,
14:18 click install certificate.
14:21 You then need to select where to save this file.
14:24 We suggest saving it in the local machine if admin rights allow,
14:27 but current user can also be chosen if not.
14:31 Either way,
14:32 select the second option,
14:33 enabling you to specify the folder.
14:36 Quick browse
14:38 Then trusted route certification authorities.
14:41 OK.
14:43 Next,
14:44 then finish.
14:47 A message should appear saying the installation was successful.
14:51 Close these down by clicking OK.
14:55 If your system administrator rights allows,
14:58 there may be a message here saying trust all documents from this publisher.
15:02 If so,
15:03 select it and click OK.
15:05 In this case
15:07 we can simply click OK.
15:10 Finally,
15:11 close Plus down
15:12 and reopen it from my documents.
15:16 The toolkit should now open to its title screen.
15:24 How to use last,
15:25 OK,
15:26 when Plast is opened,
15:27 a title screen will be displayed.
15:30 To proceed,
15:31 click on the start button on the right.
15:35 A disclaimer page will then be shown.
15:37 Again,
15:38 you can proceed by clicking the next button
15:40 in the bottom right corner.
15:44 Following this,
15:45 about and training pages will be visible.
15:49 Further details of the Plas methodology
15:51 and instructions to use the toolkit can be
15:53 found by clicking on the link on the accompanying
15:56 user manual.
15:58 Remember,
15:59 if you require any additional technical support,
16:02 please contact myself,
16:03 Doctor Costa Vales at the University of Leeds.
16:07 Once you have familiarized yourself with the user manual
16:10 and completed this training video,
16:12 please click on the box,
16:13 check box shown here.
16:15 At this point,
16:17 the next button will turn dark blue,
16:19 signaling it is active,
16:20 and you can now proceed
16:22 to the next step.
16:25 The next step.
16:27 Shows the main page of blast.
16:29 Let's first take a tour.
16:32 Along the top
16:34 are 3 buttons allowing you to switch between 3 main question sets.
16:38 Part A,
16:39 policy related objectives,
16:41 Part B,
16:42 technical objectives,
16:43 Part C,
16:44 data availability.
16:46 Your current position is signified by the dark blue button,
16:49 in this case Part A.
16:51 We advise Part A,
16:53 questions are completed by high-level users
16:56 who have an understanding of overall strategies,
16:58 goals,
16:59 and resources.
17:00 Parts B and C,
17:01 however,
17:02 should be completed by a user with
17:04 technical understanding of plastic pollution assessment methodologies.
17:09 Below these
17:11 Three buttons is the uh question ribbon.
17:14 Right,
17:15 these show how the subcategories of the plus framework that we discussed earlier
17:20 with er the name and number of these changing based on
17:23 the question you set er questions that you have selected.
17:27 In this case,
17:28 P A has 5 questions.
17:30 Users should navigate through these questions in order
17:33 to enable this,
17:34 only the current questions,
17:35 shown here by the white
17:37 button
17:38 and the next question,
17:39 the dark blue button in A2 in this example,
17:42 are active.
17:45 However,
17:46 once you click on A2,
17:47 the next button of A3 becomes active and so on.
17:50 Once clicked,
17:51 a question becomes permanently active and you can be uh revisited anytime.
17:56 Notice one,
17:58 which button uh notice that each button has a pop-up help box,
18:02 huh?
18:02 These are to help you if you struggle to understand any terminology
18:06 and are available by hovering over any of the buttons
18:09 on this main page,
18:10 or alternatively,
18:11 the information uh symbols.
18:13 Let's revert these and go back to the question A one for now.
18:19 The full text of the question you have to
18:21 answer is shown below uh the question ribbon,
18:23 along with the options that relate to that question and selectable answers.
18:28 In this case,
18:29 the question is asking about what states
18:31 are you focused
18:33 on your efforts to quantify plastic pollution?
18:35 Which four options provided
18:37 baselining,
18:38 action planning,
18:39 monitoring,
18:40 and benchmarking.
18:41 Each option can be answered as either yes or no,
18:45 and more than one option can be answered as yes,
18:47 if required.
18:49 Alternatively,
18:50 if none of the question options are relevant to you,
18:52 you can answer no for all,
18:54 or simply skip to the next question.
18:56 However,
18:57 we do advise users to try to complete all questions to part A if possible,
19:01 as these are important high level questions
19:03 and questions A32 A5 alone are used to suggest
19:07 how um suitable
19:09 the four generalized approaches
19:11 may be.
19:17 Results on the suitability of these four generalized approaches
19:21 will be shown on this top right results section
19:24 when 4 more options to questions A3 to A5
19:27 have been completed.
19:28 Interpretation of which we will discuss
19:31 shortly.
19:33 Below the approach suitability results
19:35 are the suggested methodology results.
19:37 The area will show the top 3 ranked
19:40 plastic pollution assessment methodologies that
19:43 Plas believes are the most suitable
19:45 to users' subjective and resources,
19:47 based on how they have answered the questions.
19:50 Again,
19:50 these results only appear
19:52 when sufficient options have been answered.
19:58 Continuing the tour,
19:59 if you simply wish to view details on methodologies available in Plast,
20:03 click the view all methodologies button.
20:06 These displays and pop-up window where details of its methodologies is provided
20:10 in alphabetical order.
20:12 The left and right arrows can be used to cycle between methodologies.
20:17 To close the pop-up window and return to the main page,
20:20 click on the uh uh cross at the top.
20:27 Following on,
20:28 frequently asked questions
20:30 can be accessed in this uh top toolbar.
20:34 Whereas
20:35 any completed inputs can be reset
20:37 across all three question sets
20:39 by clicking the reset
20:41 button.
20:43 I will now hand over to my colleague here
20:46 uh at the University of Leeds,
20:48 Doctor Josh Cottram,
20:50 to take you through the detailed question
20:52 and other features of the toolkit
20:54 and provide you with a guided example.
20:57 Over to you,
20:58 Jos.
21:01 Thank you.
21:02 Let's talk more about answering the questions.
21:05 We suggest that each of the 5 questions of
21:07 Part A is answered first by a high-level user
21:09 before a technical user answers the A questions of Part B
21:13 and 2 questions of Part C.
21:15 Remember,
21:16 users should only complete the questions that are relevant to their needs.
21:20 However,
21:21 they must view the questions initially
21:23 so that they're able to make this assessment before
21:25 they're allowed to proceed on to the next question.
21:29 There are 3 types of answers used withinlast.
21:32 For example,
21:32 some question options have simple answers of yes or no.
21:36 As we show here is the case for question C1.
21:40 This specifies whether the user has access to a certain data point or not.
21:45 Similarly,
21:46 questions such as A5,
21:47 what level of resources can you commit,
21:50 has answers of type high,
21:52 medium and low.
21:54 Further details on what each of these represents for the various options
21:58 is shown in the box at the bottom,
22:00 made visible by hovering over the option text.
22:04 The 3rd kind of answer,
22:06 and by far the most common in plast,
22:08 is those specifying the importance of a question option.
22:12 As shown here for question B1,
22:14 how important is it that the assessment methodology
22:18 works with the following spatial resolutions.
22:20 The user can select either essential,
22:23 important,
22:24 preferred,
22:25 or non-essential.
22:27 By default,
22:28 all answers are non-essential to begin with,
22:31 so if this question is not relevant to you,
22:33 you can simply skip to the next
22:35 question without it affecting the selection process.
22:40 Plush treats all options as it is essential
22:43 as a filter within the selection process.
22:46 Therefore,
22:46 only showing methodologies which have this feature.
22:50 We advise users
22:51 to only select essential as an answer when absolutely necessary,
22:56 as selecting too many options as essential
22:58 may significantly reduce the number of suitable methodologies.
23:04 To remind users of this,
23:05 a warning message is displayed at the bottom of the screen.
23:12 OK,
23:13 let's now move on to the results.
23:15 These show on the right hand side
23:16 when sufficient question options have been answered.
23:20 However,
23:20 these are preliminary results,
23:22 with the final results only obtained after all questions have been assessed.
23:26 To highlight this,
23:27 a pop-up explanation message appears.
23:31 As you continue to complete the questions,
23:33 the results automatically update.
23:36 The approach suitability results in the top right give a quick
23:40 indication of how suitable the four main types of approaches are
23:43 based on a user's Part A high level objectives and resources.
23:47 The largest bar being the most suitable approach,
23:50 in this case,
23:50 material for analysis.
23:53 On the other hand,
23:54 the suggested methodologies results
23:56 in the bottom right
23:57 outline the top 3 methodologies that score
24:00 highest based on the answers from all questions
24:03 and according to the multi-criteria decision framework.
24:07 Let's have a look at these in more detail.
24:11 Let's assume that a user has gone through and answered all the relevant questions.
24:16 Firstly,
24:17 the blue text at the top
24:19 tells us that 10 methodologies match the essential criteria
24:23 and are therefore potentially suitable options to meet our needs.
24:28 The top 3 ranked of these
24:30 is shown in this section.
24:32 This includes details on the assessment name,
24:35 the release year,
24:36 name of the developing organizations or authors,
24:39 and a star rating system
24:41 which summarizes how well it matches the important and preferred answers,
24:45 as well as the data requirements.
24:49 More detailed description of the assessment objectives,
24:52 the methodology,
24:53 and any key outputs and contacts
24:55 can be viewed by clicking the tabs in this box on the right hand side.
25:02 The side to side arrows can be used
25:03 to navigate between the top 3 ranked methodologies,
25:06 with details and star ratings changing accordingly.
25:12 Alternatively,
25:13 the details of the top 3 methodologies can be compared
25:15 in a PDF document by clicking the compare PDF button.
25:20 A pop-up message will display
25:21 if you have not yet assessed all available questions,
25:25 therefore warning that the results shown
25:27 are still preliminary.
25:29 Click OK on this message
25:31 to proceed to the PDF.
25:34 The comparison PDF will appear either as a pop-up window or
25:37 in a separate PDF viewer depending on the user's PC.
25:41 It shows both the approach suitability results
25:43 and the suggested methodologies results,
25:46 including all details shown in the tag box on the previous page.
25:50 This is laid out in a structured format to allow
25:52 users to save or print the results as necessary.
25:57 Additionally,
25:58 if there are any methodologies that are ranked equally to the top 3,
26:01 but are not shown in the suggested methodology section,
26:04 the names of these methodologies are also provided.
26:08 Typically,
26:09 equally ranked methodologies appear when the user has
26:11 only answered a small amount of the questions,
26:14 meaning the multi-criteria decision algorithm is not
26:16 able to discern between them yet.
26:20 Lastly,
26:21 the comparison PDF also shows a radar diagram.
26:24 This provides a visual comparison of how each of the three
26:27 top ranked methodologies scores against the user's answers of Part A,
26:31 Part B,
26:32 and Part C,
26:33 specified in terms of the percentage of inputs that they meet.
26:38 To save the results,
26:39 click the cross in the top right hand corner of the screen.
26:43 A message will display asking if you wish to save the results,
26:46 click yes to save.
26:54 Let's go through an application of plastic together
26:56 for a hypothetical example of a national government.
27:00 In this example,
27:01 we'll assume the government wishes to apply a plastic
27:03 pollution assessment methodology to complete the following objectives.
27:08 It's essential to them to understand how much plastic is
27:10 entering the oceans from land-based sources in their country,
27:14 preferably understanding the major rivers that are involved in this.
27:18 It's also important for them to understand what the
27:20 sources of the plastic waste entering the environment are
27:23 and how polluted different locations in their country are,
27:26 ideally broken down by province or municipalities.
27:30 They intend to use this information as a preliminary baselining assessment
27:34 and to compare their plastic pollution to other similar countries.
27:38 The government sees this assessment as
27:40 a starting point in tackling plastic pollution
27:42 and has technical expertise it can rely on in
27:44 the form of environmental and waste management departments.
27:48 These departments can source some semi-specialist equipment if needed,
27:51 however,
27:52 they have limited time available,
27:54 ideally aiming to have results in less than 2 months.
27:57 Therefore,
27:58 they'd prefer not to collect any primary data.
28:01 So,
28:01 let's go to the main page of PLAST and start outlining our needs,
28:05 beginning with question A1.
28:08 You can read the help text on the definition of the question
28:10 by scrolling onto the information icon,
28:13 as well as getting more details on what each
28:15 of the options mean by hovering over their text.
28:20 Now,
28:21 we know that the government is wanting to
28:22 do an initial baseline assessment of plastic pollution,
28:25 so we can set this option to yes.
28:29 As they're not at the moment considering
28:30 developing action plans or long-term monitoring,
28:33 we can leave the next two options blank.
28:35 However,
28:36 as they wish to be able to compare their results to that of other countries,
28:39 we set benchmarking to yes.
28:44 Question A2 asks about the scale over which the
28:47 whole of the assessment methodology will be applied.
28:50 We therefore wish to choose national,
28:52 as they want the results for the whole country.
28:55 Notice,
28:55 however,
28:56 that the selection options have now changed to essential,
28:59 important,
29:00 preferred and non-essential.
29:02 This is to reflect the fact that users may
29:04 consider some aspects more important to them than others,
29:07 with this specified importance being taken into account
29:09 when the toolkit suggests the most suitable methodologies.
29:14 As the government in this example,
29:16 requires that the results are for the whole country,
29:19 we can therefore set national to essential.
29:24 Notice there is a warning message at the bottom.
29:27 This simply highlights the fact that choosing essential
29:31 acts as a hard filter within the toolkit.
29:33 Therefore,
29:34 any methodologies which cannot run at the national scale
29:37 will automatically be excluded.
29:41 This filtering only applies to options selected as essential.
29:46 Selecting important or preferred
29:48 is instead more simply used to rank the methodologies
29:51 where the essential components are already met.
29:55 It does this first by those selected important,
29:58 before distinguishing any equally ranked methodologies
30:01 by the preferred selections,
30:03 and then finally,
30:04 data requirements that we'll input in part C.
30:08 A more thorough explanation of this ranking process
30:11 can be read in the accompanying user manual.
30:15 Moving on to question A3,
30:16 the assessment scope.
30:19 We know the government is primarily concerned
30:22 with quantifying
30:23 the amount of plastic that is emptying the ocean from their country.
30:27 As such,
30:28 we can set plastic discharge to oceans as essential.
30:35 Notice how we get this pop-up message
30:37 saying that preliminary results are now available to view.
30:41 As we can see over here on the right hand side.
30:44 These results will auto update as we continue to answer the questions.
30:51 Staying on question A3,
30:53 we know the government would also like to
30:55 know the land-based sources of this plastic pollution,
30:57 as well as how polluted the environment currently is.
31:02 Both of these are not as critical as the plastic discharge to oceans.
31:06 We can therefore set
31:08 the sources and the state of the environment as important.
31:15 For question
31:15 A4.
31:17 Environmental compartments,
31:19 we know the government is concerned with land-based sources of plastic pollution,
31:23 therefore we can set land as essential.
31:26 They'd also like to know,
31:27 if possible,
31:28 the hotspots where plastic is entering the oceans,
31:31 such as major contributing rivers,
31:33 although this is a bonus.
31:35 We therefore set riverine as preferred.
31:40 Finally,
31:41 question A5
31:42 asks about the level of resources the user has available.
31:46 Distributed
31:47 by specialist expertise.
31:50 Specialist equipment
31:52 And time.
31:55 Details of these
31:56 can be shown by hovering over them,
31:58 and the details shown in a pop-up box at the bottom.
32:03 These are scored slightly different than those above,
32:06 using a high,
32:06 meaning or low selections.
32:09 We know the government has some expertise that they can offer
32:12 in the form of their national departments to
32:14 do some basic data collection if necessary.
32:17 Therefore,
32:18 we set this option as medium.
32:21 Likewise,
32:21 they also have access to some semi-specialist equipment,
32:24 therefore,
32:25 we can also set the second option
32:27 as medium.
32:30 For the time,
32:31 they have a very short time frame of less than 2 months,
32:34 therefore,
32:35 we can select this option as low.
32:40 You can see this gray box at the bottom has taken
32:42 these inputs and calculated the overall resource availability as medium.
32:48 This can be thought of as a standardized level of resources
32:51 or say a proxy for the overall budget
32:53 that is likely to be available to them.
32:57 Now we have answered questions to part A,
32:59 the approach suitability results in the top right are complete.
33:03 You can see all approaches would be well suited to meet the user objectives,
33:07 likely because they are quite broad requirements.
33:10 However,
33:11 both material flow analysis
33:13 and statistical trend analysis
33:15 are ranked slightly higher.
33:18 On the other hand,
33:19 whilst we have results for the suggested methodologies,
33:22 these are not complete yet,
33:23 and we should continue to answer
33:25 the questions of Part B and C.
33:28 Moving on to Part B.
33:32 This focuses on the more technical outputs,
33:34 and therefore we recommend this that a user
33:36 with a high level of technical knowledge,
33:38 ideally someone with an appreciation for terminology
33:40 and methods used in plastic pollution assessments,
33:43 completes this section.
33:46 Question B1 is discussing the spatial resolution of the outputs.
33:51 This differs from the spatial scale of the assessment,
33:53 as asked on the previous questions,
33:55 as it relates to what spatial areas the methodology will inform on,
33:59 not only of the area which it will be applied.
34:02 For example,
34:03 the national government wants to get results at least at the national level.
34:07 Therefore,
34:08 we can select this as essential.
34:11 However,
34:12 they would also prefer breakdowns by each province,
34:14 municipality,
34:15 and river basin if possible.
34:17 So we can select these as preferred.
34:23 For question B2.
34:25 Let's assume the user would like the results for the period of a year ideally,
34:29 but he is not interested in any finer finer tempo resolutions.
34:34 The annual resolution is deemed important to them.
34:38 Questions B3 and B4
34:40 are asking whether the user is interested in
34:43 understanding the contribution from particular sectors or companies
34:46 or
34:46 aspects of the waste management system.
34:49 At this preliminary stage,
34:51 this doesn't really concern the government,
34:53 therefore they leave these options blank.
34:58 Question B5 asks about what level of detail the user
35:01 wants the results reported at in terms of plastic.
35:05 Let's assume it is essential to them
35:07 that they want the results at least at a plastic level,
35:11 but,
35:11 if possible,
35:12 would also like a breakdown by polymer,
35:15 therefore setting this to preferred.
35:18 Question B6
35:20 asks whether they want the quantification to be done by mass or by count.
35:24 Now it's likely that at this national level,
35:27 it would probably be mass that they would require.
35:29 However,
35:30 let's assume that the user does not necessarily know this,
35:33 and therefore,
35:34 it's better to leave this question blank
35:36 than to incorrectly fill it out.
35:41 Question B7 asks if there are any particular formats that
35:44 they would like the results to be displayed in.
35:47 Let's assume it's important to the user that some maps are produced,
35:51 but they're not overly concerned with any of the other options.
35:57 Finally,
35:58 question B8 is concerned with whether the assessment methodology
36:01 should prioritize interventions for them.
36:04 As the user is at a preliminary phase and
36:06 is not interested in action planning as of yet,
36:08 we can again leave these options empty.
36:13 You can see that after these updated selections,
36:15 our results have narrowed down to just 10 potentially suitable options,
36:19 those that meet our essential criteria.
36:22 Despite this,
36:23 the user should continue to fill out the remaining questions of Part C,
36:27 in case any of these options change rank
36:29 or new methodologies are deemed more suitable.
36:33 Part C focuses solely on the data the user has available or is willing to collect.
36:39 Question C1 is formed of yes or no answers for
36:42 the data that is typically required by the assessment methodologies.
36:46 For this example,
36:47 let's assume they already have access to waste generation and composition data.
36:53 Alongside
36:54 some information on their soil waste management system
36:57 and socioeconomics.
37:03 The remaining data they do not have,
37:05 and due to time restraints are not looking to perform any primary data collection.
37:10 Question C2,
37:11 ask the user how important
37:13 they
37:14 they feel being able to use proxy data or default data.
37:18 In this case,
37:19 the user realizes that they may not have all the data required,
37:22 and as they're not able to use any primary data collection
37:26 due to time restraints,
37:27 they think it would be preferable to use this.
37:31 Now all the user inputs are complete,
37:33 we can see the final results on the right hand side.
37:37 There are 10 methods that meet the essential criteria.
37:41 With the top 3
37:42 shown below.
37:45 These are ranked first
37:46 by the important components that they meet,
37:49 then by the preferred components.
37:52 You can see that the top 3 methods all have the same important component star rating.
37:57 Therefore,
37:58 it is the preferred components level
38:00 on which they are ranked.
38:03 You can also see the results
38:04 by going to the compare PDF button.
38:08 This produces a PDF
38:11 that summarizes all of the results
38:14 and is laid out in a way for easy saving or printing.
38:19 Users can go back
38:20 and change the answers to any questions
38:23 that they wish.
38:25 Or if they wish to start again,
38:27 they can click the reset button.
38:29 To go back to the start.
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