Breaking the Plastic Wave: ocean plastic inflow could nearly triple by 2040
Business as usual takes annual plastic flows into the ocean from 11 to 29 million tonnes by 2040, but existing solutions together could cut…
Policymakers
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UN Environment Programme (UNEP): plastic pollution could be cut 80% by 2040 with existing technology
The UN’s Turning off the Tap report shows reuse, recycling and material substitution could slash plastic pollution and save trillions.
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Single-use plastic waste is still growing: 139 million tonnes in 2021
Minderoo’s Plastic Waste Makers Index names the polymer producers behind single-use plastic and shows it growing despite bans.
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Uncollected waste and open burning, not littering, drive plastic pollution
A Nature study finds 52 million tonnes of plastic entered the environment in 2020, most of it burned or dumped where rubbish collection does…
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56 companies are responsible for more than half of branded plastic litter
Five years of brand audits across 84 countries show a few consumer-goods giants dominate plastic pollution, and pollution rises in step with production.
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Even the EU recycles only 41% of its plastic packaging
Eurostat data show EU plastic packaging recycling rose only slowly, from 38% in 2012 to 41% in 2022, despite the strictest rules in the…
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The origin of the ‘8 million tonnes into the ocean’ figure
Jambeck’s landmark 2015 estimate found 4.8–12.7 million tonnes of land-based plastic entered the ocean in 2010; it is often wrongly quoted as a current…
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Only 9% of all plastic ever made has been recycled
The first global accounting of every plastic ever produced found that most of it is already waste and almost none was recycled.