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The collapse of the plastic waste trade (PWT) amplifies the threats of mismanaged plastic waste to the ecological system and human health, posing a risk as well as an opportunity to the global circular economy. Although trade barriers in the PWT continue to impact waste management systems, there are few analyses that propose global mitigation strategies in response to trade fluctuations. Here, we show that most countries have been overloaded with plastic waste compared to their ordinary capacity since China's import ban in 2017. We apply a cascading failure model to quantify the collapse process worldwide and find that 183 countries become overloaded as this collapse cascades, with nearly 6% of countries experiencing over 1.5 times their ordinary load. However, this overload could be greatly alleviated if leading countries were to sharply increase their capacity to treat plastic waste based on scenario analysis. Although waste exporters should take more responsibility and scenario analysis results show that top exporters could effectively mitigate global plastic waste levels by increasing their treatment capacity, cooperation between key exporters, importers, and intermediators has the best mitigation effects. Our analysis suggests that key countries should as soon as possible take responsibility for and cooperate in mitigating potential plastic waste pollution related to trade fluctuations. • Many countries show plastic waste overloading due to China's import ban. • Structural change of plastic waste trade could lead cascading failure worldwide. • Overload situation will be greatly alleviated, if leading countries work for it. • The cooperation strategy has the best mitigation effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural production in China is mainly decentralized, small in size, and involved by independent single households. Farmers are the main implementers of soil erosion control projects. Their willingness and abilities, which are crucial to the effectiveness of these projects, are closely related to their social networks. However, the relationship between farmers' social networks and soil erosion control remains unclear. Hengxi, a typical village in Jiangxi Province, China, was used as a case study. Traditional- and new-type of farmers' social networks were built according to the planting structures based on survey data. The results showed that both types of networks had the characteristics of small-world network and scale-free network. The ability to obtain and dispense information was the significant distinction between the two networks. The dealer was an influential key node in both networks. The government agencies were key nodes in the new-type network but not in the traditional-type network, which made it difficult for traditional farmers to obtain indispensable information about soil erosion control. The characteristics of farmers and their corresponding networks had significant influences on their awareness of soil erosion. Soil erosion management projects could be deployed smoothly by the key farmers and government agencies in the new-type social network, but difficultly in the traditional-type social network. To improve the effectiveness of soil erosion control projects, cooperation with dealers is important for government agencies. • Characteristics of farmers' social networks are distinct based on planting structure. • Information diffusion is more efficient in new-type social network. • Betweenness centrality affects farmers' awareness of soil and water conservation. • Government agencies should undertake proper roles in traditional-type social network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]