Plastic could use up 10–13% of the world’s remaining carbon budget by 2050
Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL)’s Plastic & Climate report estimated lifecycle plastic emissions at 850 million tonnes in 2019, rising to 1.34 billion…
Schools and teachers
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‘More plastic than fish by 2050’: a famous claim built on shaky numbers
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s 2016 projection rests on an extrapolation its own source author did not endorse and a fish estimate later revised upwards.
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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.
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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…