91 per cent plastic isn’t recycled
Plastic manufacturing has outpaced nearly every other man-made material. Half of all steel produced is used in construction, with a decades-long lifespan. Half of all plastic manufactured becomes trash in less than a year.
Mass production of plastics, which began six decades ago, has accelerated so rapidly that it has created 8.3 billion metric tons — most of it in disposable products that end up as trash. Even the scientists who set out to conduct the world’s first tally of how much plastic has been produced, discarded, burned or put in landfills, were horrified by the sheer size of the numbers.
Plastic takes more than 400 years to degrade, so most of it still exists in some form. Only 12 percent has been incinerated.
Two years ago scientists tried to get a handle on the gargantuan amount of plastic that ends up in the seas and the harm it is causing to birds, marine animals, and fish. The prediction that by mid-century, the oceans will contain more plastic waste than fish has become one of the most-quoted statistics and a rallying cry to do something about it.
A new study says of the 8.3 billion metric tons that has been produced, 6.3 billion metric tons has become plastic waste. Of that, only nine percent has been recycled. The vast majority — 79 percent — is accumulating in landfills or sloughing off in the natural environment as litter.
If present trends continue, by 2050, there will be 12 billion metric tons of plastic in landfills. That amount is 35,000 times as heavy as the Empire State Building.
Half the resins and fibers used in plastics were produced in the last 13 years. China alone accounts for 28 percent of global resin and 68 percent of polyester polyamide and acrylic fibers. Much of the growth in plastic production has been the increased use of plastic packaging, which accounts for more than 40 percent of non-fiber plastic.
A research in 2015 estimated that 8 million metric tons of plastic ends up in the oceans every year. That is the equivalent to five grocery bags of plastic trash for every foot of coastline around the globe.
Gaining control of plastic waste is now such a large task that it calls for a comprehensive, global approach.
