A million bottles a minute: world's plastic binge 'as dangerous as climate change' - Sandra Laville and Matthew Taylor
Annual consumption of plastic bottles is
set to top half a trillion by 2021, far outstripping recycling efforts and
jeopardising oceans, coastlines and other environments
Humans produce almost
20,000 plastic bottles every second
More than 480bn plastic drinking bottles were sold in 2016 across the world, up from about 300bn a decade ago. If placed end to end, they would extend more than halfway to the sun.
A million plastic
bottles are bought around the world every minute and the number will jump
another 20% by 2021, creating an environmental crisis some campaigners predict
will be as serious as climate change. New figures obtained
by the Guardian reveal the surge in usage of plastic bottles, more than half a
trillion of which will be sold annually by the end of the decade. The demand, equivalent
to about 20,000 bottles being bought every second, is driven by an apparently
insatiable desire for bottled water and the spread of a western, urbanised “on
the go” culture to China and
the Asia Pacific region. More than 480bn
plastic drinking bottles were sold in 2016 across the world, up from about
300bn a decade ago. If placed end to end, they would extend more than halfway
to the sun. By 2021 this will increase to 583.3bn, according to the most
up-to-date estimates from Euromonitor International’s global packaging trends report.
Most plastic bottles
used for soft drinks and water are made from polyethylene terephthalate (Pet),
which is highly recyclable. But as their use soars across the globe, efforts to
collect and recycle the bottles to keep them from polluting the oceans, are
failing to keep up. Fewer than half of the
bottles bought in 2016 were collected for recycling and just 7% of those
collected were turned into new bottles. Instead most plastic bottles produced
end up in landfill or in the ocean.
Between 5m and 13m
tonnes of plastic leaks into the world’s oceans each year to be ingested by sea
birds, fish and other organisms, and by 2050 the ocean will contain more
plastic by weight than fish, according
to research by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Experts warn that some
of it is already finding its way into the human food chain. Scientists at Ghent
University in Belgium recently
calculated people who eat seafood ingest up to 11,000 tiny pieces of
plastic every year. Last August, the
results of a study by Plymouth University reported plastic was found
in a third of UK-caught fish, including cod, haddock, mackerel and shellfish.
Last year, the
European Food Safety Authority called for urgent research, citing
increasing concern for human health and food safety “given the potential for
microplastic pollution in edible tissues of commercial fish”.
Dame Ellen MacArthur,
the round the world yachtswoman, now campaigns to promote a circular economy in
which plastic bottles are reused, refilled and recycled rather than used once
and thrown away. “Shifting to a real
circular economy for plastics is a massive opportunity to close the loop, save
billions of dollars, and decouple plastics production from fossil fuel
consumption,” she said.
Hugo Tagholm, of the
marine conservation and campaigning group Surfers Against Sewage, said the
figures were devastating. “The plastic pollution crisis rivals the threat of
climate change as it pollutes every natural system and an increasing number of
organisms on planet Earth. “Current science shows
that plastics cannot be usefully assimilated into the food chain. Where they
are ingested they carry toxins that work their way on to our dinner plates.”
Surfers Against Sewage are campaigning for a refundable deposit scheme to
be introduced in the UK as a way of encouraging reuse... read more:
More on microplastics
We
could end up with 'as much plastic in our oceans as fish'
There are currently estimated to be around 800m tonnes of fish in the oceans and 100m to 150m tonnes of plastic. This is increasing by around 20m tonnes a year, but that growth is expected to accelerate as far greater numbers of people are able to afford to buy products that are made with, or packaged in, plastic.
There are currently estimated to be around 800m tonnes of fish in the oceans and 100m to 150m tonnes of plastic. This is increasing by around 20m tonnes a year, but that growth is expected to accelerate as far greater numbers of people are able to afford to buy products that are made with, or packaged in, plastic.
