<p>The plastic waste produced from plastic consumption is largely non-biodegradable, and incineration technology is usually used for its proper disposal, which leads to air pollution. This air pollution is responsible for increasing respiratory disorders; globally, about 7 million individuals die from air pollution-related diseases (APDs). Sustainable management of plastic waste is necessary to reduce air pollution and integrated the use of green nanotechnologies, natural resources management, economic complexities, and effective use of renewable energy are major factors. The present work utilizes the Fourier augmented autoregressive distributed lag approach to evaluate how all these ameliorative measures can be effective in managing plastic pollution and linked to associated deaths in China from 2000 to 2022. Results indicate that the use of plastic, green nanotechnologies (GN), natural resources, and economic complexity contributes to an increase in mortality caused by air pollution, but the use of renewable energy has a mitigating effect on air pollution-related deaths. The results depict that plastic waste incineration-driven air pollution is responsible for many of these deaths, and it also suggests that higher GN spending is directly correlated with higher APD, which is predominantly associated with single-use plastic in the GN sector. Doubling plastic use resulted in a 0.75% increase in related deaths, while the adoption of green energy reduced these fatalities by 0.085% annually. The findings prove that enhanced dependence on renewable energy technologies can help in the potential reduction of air pollution-related deaths, which is also in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) i.e., SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production). Investigation paves the way for understanding how the potential relationship between environmental factors and health outcomes can be positively modulated in China.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>