http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40654915http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/7/e1700782Plastics have outgrown most man-made materials and have long been under environmental scrutiny. However, robust global information, particularly about their end-of-life fate, is lacking. By identifying and synthesizing dispersed data on production, use, and end-of-life management of polymer resins, synthetic fibers, and additives, we present the first global analysis of all mass-produced plastics ever manufactured. We estimate that 8300 million metric tons (Mt) as of virgin plastics have been produced to date. As of 2015, approximately 6300 Mt of plastic waste had been generated, around 9% of which had been recycled, 12% was incinerated, and 79% was accumulated in landfills or the natural environment. If current production and waste management trends continue, roughly 12,000 Mt of plastic waste will be in landfills or in the natural environment by 2050.
So in just over a hundred years, we've produced the same weight in plastic as the weight of all elephants in the world: 8.3 billion tonnes, 79% of which is still sitting in the environment.
Problem is, of course, that elephants break down and decompose, whereas some plastics last essentially forever, just breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces.
How much of that plastic is used just for a single incident, like a plastic bag to take goods from shop to home?
Here in Thailand, the amount of plastic used is genuinely absurd. You buy 2 products wrapped in plastic - say cat food, and a banana -, and then the shop will put them into two separate plastic bags (because no one wants their plastic-wrapped cat food next to their plastic-wrapped banana) and then put both bags into another bag to carry.
It's literally a struggle to minimize usage of plastic here, and people look at you as if you're from another planet when you sit collating all the products into one bag, and giving back the rest.
Forget the West... while it's obviously a mass producer/consumer, people are pretty well educated with respect to the threat of plastic. It's the rest of the world which needs education and awareness because plastic is booming here.