PLASTICS
Responsible consumption through increased use of recycled and alternative materials.
The problem with plastic.
Marine plastic pollution has increased 10-fold in less than 30 years, and global production of plastic has increased more than 200-fold since 1950. In 2015, the world produced more than 380 million tons of plastic. This is roughly equivalent to the mass of 2/3 of the world population. Around half of the plastic produced is discarded without energy recovery or recycling. Packaging is the dominant form of plastic waste at around 42% of the total waste.
The plastic waste most at risk of entering the oceans is generated in coastal populations (within 50 km of the coastline), usually overwhelmed by tourism or population growth and where the location doesn’t have an infrastructure to take care of the plastic waste. In addition, much of the plastic pollution found at sea is coming from ropes and nets from the fishing industry. It is estimated that around 8 million tons of plastic waste is entering the ocean annually.
