A study of global plastic waste volumes has found that efforts to reduce global plastic waste in the last two decades have abjectly failed.
The University of Santa Barbara, in California, and the University of Georgia Atlanta, have both recently published research assessing the entire global make up of plastic production. Since the invention of a catalyst for polyethylene and the expansion of the global oil industry in the 1950’s, the worldwide plastic industry has made over eight billion tonnes of plastic.
However, the University of California team, led by industrial ecologist Roland Geyer, found that less than a tenth of all the plastic made has ever been recycled - only nine per cent of the total was reclaimed, the remainder landfilled, incinerated, or left as pollution.
Landfill digger
The researchers calculated the volumes, with data from plastic associations and manufacturers, as they saw short term use of polymers in products such as packaging was a pressing issue compared to long term use of materials like steel and concrete, which although produced in higher volumes, are locked in the built environment for a long time.
With an environmental focus on ocean waste and plastic pollution, the study has been covered by media worldwide - with the increasing emphasis by consumers on the ethical issues around single use packaging and plastic use such as plastic straws, food packaging and microfibres in synthetic textiles, the study validates activism against ocean plastic pollution. The study was produced for the Marine Debris Working Group at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, with support from Ocean Conservancy.
Year by year the plastic industry output is growing – mainly thanks to growing demand for products in China and India, which now have the greatest share of plastic production and use. Europe and North America were the next highest plastic producing regions.
Jenna Jambeck, co-author of the studies, said: "Our estimate of eight million metric tonnes going into the oceans in 2010 is equivalent to five grocery bags filled with plastic for every foot of coastline in the world. This annual input increases each year, so our estimate for 2015 is about 9.1 million metric tons.”
Findings from Jenna Jambeck's University of Georgia study
"In 2025, the annual input would be about twice the 2010 input, or 10 bags full of plastic per foot of coastline, so the cumulative input by 2025 would equal 155 million metric tonnes.”
Jambeck added: "Most plastics don't biodegrade in any meaningful sense, so the plastic waste humans have generated could be with us for hundreds or even thousands of years. Our estimates underscore the need to think critically about the materials we use and our waste management practices."
Despite huge efforts from national polymers associations, consumer groups and manufacturers, the proportion of plastics recycled is decreasing. In 2015, the world created 406 million tonnes of plastic - more than twice as much as made in 1998.
While we may be more aware of plastic packaging, the use of plastic fibres in clothing like nylons and fleece has also grown. Between 1950 and 2015, it accounted for one billion tonnes of plastic.
