Plastic is a unique material material with many benefits: it's cheap, versatile, lightweight and resistant. This makes it a valuable material for many functions. It can also provide environment benefits: it plays critical role in maintaining food quality, safety and reducing food wastage.
Plastic Pollution is one of the major problem faced buy every organization on the global scale. It has a negative impact on our oceans and wild life health. High-income countries generate more plastic waste per person. However it is the management of plastic waste which determines the risk of plastic entering the ocean leading to the global crises.
To understand the magnitude of input of plastics to the natural environment and the world’s oceans, we must understand various elements of the plastic production, distribution and waste management chain. This is crucial, not only in understanding the scale of the problem but in implementing the most effective interventions for reduction.
We can visualize the increase of global plastic production, measured in tonnes per year, from 1950 through to 2015.
In 1950 the world produced only 2 million tonnes per year. Since then, annual production has increased exponentially, reaching 381 million tonnes in 2015.
The drop in 2009 and 2010 is due to global financial crises of the year 2008.
The visualization shows that by 2015, the world had produced 7.8 billion tonnes of plastic — almost one tonne of plastic for every person alive today.
In the visualization we can see plastic production allocation by sector for 2015.
Packaging was the dominant use of primary plastics, with 146 million tonnes of global production of plastics use for that sector
Building and construction was the second largest sector utilizing 65 million tonnes of the global production.
However, Primary plastic production does not directly reflect plastic waste generation, as it is also influenced by the polymer type and lifetime of the end product.
In this visualization we see the per capita rate of plastic waste generation, measured in kilograms per person per day
The daily per capita plastic waste across the highest countries such as China, Kuwait, Guyana, Germany, Netherlands, Ireland, the United States is more than ten times higher than across many countries such as India, Tanzania, Mozambique and Bangladesh.
However they do not represent quantities of plastic at risk of loss to the ocean or other waterways.
This visualization shows the use of primary plastics by sector and we can observe these same sectors as in production are equal in terms of plastic waste generation.
Plastic waste generation is strongly influenced by primary plastic use, but also the product lifetime.
Since packaging has a very short "in-use" lifetime, it therefore is the dominant generator of plastic waste, responsible for almost half of the global total.
In the visualization, we can see the share of global plastic waste that is discarded, recycled or incinerated for the period from 1980 throughout till 2015.
From 1990 recycling and incinerating rates increased on average by about 0.7 percent per year.
In 2015, an estimated 55 percent of global plastic waste was discarded, 25 percent was incinerated, and 20 percent recycled.
Mismanaged waste is material which is at high risk of entering the ocean via wind or tidal transport, or carried to coastlines from inland waterways. Mismanaged waste is the sum of material which is either littered or inadequately disposed.
Here we see a very strong geographical clustering of mismanaged plastic waste, a high share of the world’s ocean plastics pollution has its origin in Asia.
China contributes the highest share of mismanaged plastic waste with around 28 percent of the global total, followed by 10 percent in Indonesia, 6 percent for both the Philippines and Vietnam. Other leading countries include Thailand (3.2 percent); Egypt (3 percent); Nigeria (2.7 percent) and South Africa (2 percent).
In the visualization, we can see the global distribution of mismanaged plastic waste aggregated by world region.
The East Asia and Pacific region dominates global mismanaged plastic waste, accounting for 60 percent of the world total.
This visualization shows the predictions for the mismanaged plastic for the year 2025
There are multiple routes by which plastic can enter the ocean environment. One key input is through river systems. This can transport plastic waste from further inland to coastal areas where it can enter the ocean.
In the visualization, we can see river plastic inputs to the ocean aggregated by region — this is given as a share of the global total.
Most river plastic originates from Asia, which represents 86 percent of the global total. This is followed by Africa at 7.8 percent, and South America at 4.8 percent.
Collectively, Central & North America, Europe and the Australia-Pacific region account for just over one percent of the world total.
Between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tons of plastic waste entered the ocean in 2010. As a result, plastic pollution is degrading water quality, affecting biodiversity and posing potential human health impacts.
Plastic pollution is emerging as a top threat to ocean ecosystems. By 2025, there could be 1 ton of plastic for every 3 tons of fish in the ocean .
China is the leading producer of plastic and also leads in the plastic waste generation. It also has the most mismanaged amount of plastic compared to any other country in the world.
Most river plastic originates from Asia, followed by Africa and South America.
By recognizing that the health and welfare of humans is dependent on our interconnected relationships within the Earth community, systemic problems, such as plastic pollution will be addressed. It’s time to further evolve the protection of the ocean. Our lives, health and well-being depend on the health of the environment.