The world is producing a record amount of single-use plastic waste, mostly made from polymers created from fossil fuels, despite global efforts to reduce plastic pollution and carbon emissions, according to a new report released
The report found that recycling isn’t scaling up fast enough to deal with the amount of plastic being produced, meaning that used products are far more likely to be dumped in landfills, on beaches, and in rivers and oceans than made into recycling plants.
According to the researcher, around 137 million tonnes of single-use plastics were produced from fossil fuels in 2021, and it is expected to rise by another 17 million tonnes by 2027. It demonstrates beyond any doubt that the plastic pollution problem is getting much bigger and is being driven by the polymer producers, which are, of course, driven by the oil and gas sector.
China has driven rapid growth in global plastic demand over the past 15 years. Despite high-profile bans on some single-use products starting in 2019, it also accounted for half of the 15 million tons of new capacity that came online over 2019-2021.