of global greenhouse-gas emissions from making virgin plastic
Making plastic produced 5.3% of global emissions in 2019, not counting farming and land use. A separate study put plastic’s whole life cycle at…
Global
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tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) from making new (virgin) plastic in 2019
Primary plastic production emitted 2.24 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2019, about 71 tonnes every second and more than all aviation.
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km of fishing longline lost at sea every year
Longlines are long fishing lines that carry thousands of hooks. Enough is lost to circle the Earth 18 times, plus 14 billion hooks and…
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plastic drink bottles bought every minute (2016)
Around 480 billion plastic bottles were sold in 2016, about a million a minute, according to market research cited by The Guardian.
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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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The plastic made in a single year will cost society US$3.7 trillion over its lifetime
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Dalberg estimated the lifetime cost of 2019’s plastic at more than the gross domestic product (GDP) of…
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Global plastics treaty: still no agreement, next formal round March 2027
Four years after the UN mandate, negotiations have collapsed twice over production caps and chemicals, and a new chair is trying to restart them.
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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…
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tonnes of plastic produced in 2024
Industry’s own count of global plastics production, up 16% since 2018. That is about 820 tonnes every minute, or 13.7 tonnes every second.
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tonnes of plastic burned in the open each year
Of 52 million tonnes of plastic entering unmanaged systems in 2020, 57% was burned in homes, streets and dumps, releasing toxic fumes.