Using the WFD has been shown to facilitate stakeholder engagement, build a sense of ownership of the SWM system and assist in the development of mitigation measures that are appropriate to local circumstances. To date, over 100 WFD assessments have been carried out around the world under a range of different initiatives with a variety of different objectives. The majority have been prepared by waste management consultants and practitioners, and in a few cases have been carried out by city/municipal waste managers with training and backstopping support.

A training programme has been developed for consultants wishing to implement the WFD on the ground. The training is designed to support a WFD trainer to deliver the course over a full day (8 hours) for a maximum capacity of 30 participants. It consists of 14 sessions aimed at providing participants with a general understanding of the WFD (objectives, general approach of the model for quantification of plastic leakage and fate of plastic pollution), preparing teams to collect this information in the field (quantitative information needed for the tool, preparation needed for baseline data collection, use of qualitative field observations for leakage quantification and fate analysis within the WFD) and calculating the results to present to clients.