Why plastics?

  Plastics are a grave, growing, and under-recognised danger to human and planetary health. Plastics cause disease and death from infancy to old age and are responsible for health-related economic losses exceeding US$1.5 trillion annually. These impacts fall disproportionately upon low-income and at-risk populations. 

• Accelerating growth in plastic production is driving this crisis—from 2 megatonnes (Mt) in 1950, to 475 Mt in 2022, and projected to be 1200 Mt by 2060. 8000 Mt of plastic waste now pollutes the planet. Less than 10% of plastic is recycled. 
• Continued worsening of plastics’ harms is not inevitable. Like air pollution and lead, plastics’ harms can be mitigated cost-effectively by evidence-based, transparently tracked, effectively implemented, and adequately financed laws and policies. 

  Plastics are a grave, growing, and under-recognised danger to human and planetary health. Plastics cause disease and death from infancy to old age and are responsible for health-related economic losses exceeding US$1.5 trillion annually. These impacts fall disproportionately upon low-income and at-risk populations. 

• Accelerating growth in plastic production is driving this crisis—from 2 megatonnes (Mt) in 1950, to 475 Mt in 2022, and projected to be 1200 Mt by 2060. 8000 Mt of plastic waste now pollutes the planet. Less than 10% of plastic is recycled. 
• Continued worsening of plastics’ harms is not inevitable. Like air pollution and lead, plastics’ harms can be mitigated cost-effectively by evidence-based, transparently tracked, effectively implemented, and adequately financed laws and policies.