If plastic manufacturing goes up 10%, plastic pollution goes up 10% – and we’re set for a huge surge in production

• As plastic manufacturers increase production, more and more of it will end up in our landfills, rivers and oceans.
• Producers often put the onus back on consumers by pointing to recycling schemes as a solution to plastic pollution.
• The key question here is how close the is relationship between plastic production and pollution.
• Not only that, but over half of branded plastic pollution is linked to just 56 companies worldwide.
• Socially and economically, plastic pollution now costs us about A$3.8 trillion a year.

Plastic fantastic?

• Today, about 36% of all the world’s plastic pollution comes from the packaging sector in the form of single-use plastics.
• To find out how plastic production influences waste, we turned to global data from litter audits, surveys of waste in the environment.
• Data from these audits is useful to understand changes in types and volumes of plastic waste.
• The Coca-Cola Company products were the top source of branded plastic pollution, representing 11% of all branded litter.
• Right now, companies get to sell their products in single-use plastics and the onus is on consumers to recycle or bin the plastic.

The problem of single-use plastics

• Even when collected, single-use plastics are a difficult waste stream to manage as they have little or no recycling value.
• Sometimes these plastics are burned as fuel for cement kilns or used in waste-to-energy facilities.

To stop plastic waste, stop making more plastic

If recycling and landfilling can only go so far, the missing piece of the puzzle has to be capping plastic production. What would that look like? It would involve requiring manufacturers to steadily reduce the amount of plastic used in their products over time and adopt safe, sustainable plastic alternatives as they become available. Countries could:
set measurable targets to phase out non-essential, hazardous and unsustainable single-use products, such as take-away containers, plastic cutlery and single-use plastic bags
work to design safe and sustainable products to cut global demand for new plastic while increasing reuse, refilling, repairing, and recycling
invest in non-plastic alternatives and substitutes with better social, economic and environmental profiles, such as old-fashioned reusables.

• One thing is certain – current trends mean ever more plastic, and more plastic means more plastic pollution.
• Read more:
  The climate impact of plastic pollution is negligible – the production of new plastics is the real problem

• None of the funding received in any way relates to the work discussed or highlighted in this article.
• Win Cowger receives funding from Possibility Lab, Break Free From Plastic, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and McPike Zima Charitable Foundation.