So that's what happens to our rubbish! Rising global plastic production and mismanaged waste

Judging from the amount of plastic being produced globally, we clearly do think that life in plastic is fantastic. We absolutely love the stuff. It's convenient, relatively cheap, light weight, and amazingly adaptable - all in all the perfect consumer product! Except for once we've finished using it... then it mounts up in our landfills, and pollutes our oceans. Oh dear.

PlasticEurope produces an annual report on the plastic market. Globally, plastic production is steadily increasing. Insatiable demand has driven global production up almost 50% from 204 million tons in 2002, to 299 million tons in 2013; and almost 750% since 1975 (0.4 million tons).

Global plastic production, and European plastic production. Source: PlasticEurope.

Unsurprisingly, most of the demand and production is in more economically developed countries, such as USA and western European countries, with China, India and other southeast Asian countries catching up quick. In western Europe and northern America plastic consumption per capita has reached 100kg annually. In Asia, it is at 20kg per capita per year, but rising rapidly. Asia is taking the lead in production too, producing 45.6% of global plastic in 2013, predominantly in China and India. Demand for plastics is largely driven by packaging, with plastic replacing metal, glass and paper packaging. Packaging is the most common use for plastic, followed by consumer and household products, then building and construction. Personally, I found this surprising - the majority of plastic is made to thrown away?!

Different types of plastics and their uses. Source: PlasticEurope.

With the increasing global production of plastic, the proportion of municipal solid waste that is plastic has risen accordingly. In 1960 plastics equalled less than 1% of such waste in the USA, in 2000 plastics were making up over 10% of such waste in 58% of the countries with available data. What happens to the plastic next is of crucial importance for the oceans. Taking the example of Europe in 2012, most of the plastic is 'recovered' - meaning that it is incinerated for energy recovery (36%) or recycled (26%). However, a great volume of it is still headed for landfill - 38% on average in Europe, and that average is being pinned down by countries with effective landfill bans such as Germany and Switzerland. The UK sends almost 70% of its plastic to landfill, ranking as the 5th worst country in Europe! Furthermore, 87% of Europe's plastic sent to 'recycling' is exported out to China, where it is not fully transparent how it is processed.    

The destination of plastic waste in Europe. Source: PlasticEurope.

Proportion of plastic sent to landfill by country in Europe. Source: PlasticEurope.

Where there is ineffective and insufficient management of plastic waste, there is also the potential for that plastic to end up in the oceans. UNEP reports that somewhere between 10 and 20 million tons of plastic ends up in the oceans each year. Jambeck et al. (2015) estimate the amount to be between 4.8 and 12.7 million tons. They estimated that in 2010, in 192 coastal countries, 275 million tons of plastic was generated. The map below shows the amount of plastic waste available to enter the oceans from populations with 50km of the coast. Jambeck et al. define plastic waste available to enter the oceans as that which has been 'mismanaged', including all plastic that goes to dumps and open landfills. China had the largest amount of potential marine plastic, producing 8.82 million tons a year of mismanaged plastic waste. The next highest produced less than half that of China. In 2nd place was Indonesia, producing 3.22 million tons a year of mismanaged plastic waste. 16 out of the top 20 producers of mismanaged plastic waste are middle-income countries. In these countries, rapid population growth follows rapid economic growth, whilst waste management infrastructure lags behind.  

Mismanaged plastic waste with the potential to enter the oceans, by country. Source: Jambeck et al.

To conclude, we are producing enormous amounts of plastic to satisfy the growing global demand. Everyone loves using plastic, but there is a global ambivalence at best towards responsibly and effectively managing plastic waste. Poor plastic waste management enables plastic to end up in the oceans. It's estimated there are currently 5.25 trillion floating plastic particles, costing $13 billion a year in damage to marine ecosystems. The solutions appear to me to be two-fold: improve waste management, and reduce the amount of waste plastic in the first place.