The Essential Use Concept can help to guide decision making for eliminating and minimising risks from non-essential, hazardous and unsustainable plastics. The Montreal Protocol demonstrates the success of the Essential Use Concept in protecting the ozone layer; this policy brief describes how it can be adopted in the Global Plastics Treaty through the development of essentiality assessment criteria for plastics. These criteria can be used across sectors to support a harmonised, feasible, efficient and effective approach to reducing risks that is supportive of a just transition.