Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
10/31/2017 Plastic trash could top 13 billion tons by 2050. And recycling doesn't help much - LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-plastic-trash-20170721-htmlstory.html 1/7
9.1 billion
6.9 billion
Plastic trash could top 13 billion tons by 2050. Andrecycling doesn't help much
By Sean Greene
JULY 21, 2017, 5:00 AM
H umans make more plastic than just about anything.
Since the 1950s, plastic production worldwide has exploded fromabout 2 million tons to a whopping 440 million tons in 2015,
surpassing any other man-made material except for cement and steel.
A total of 9.1 billion tons of plastic have ever been produced, with half coming inthe last 13 years, according to a new analysis in Science Advances.
And that makes sense: Plastic is ridiculously useful and durable. The problem isthe stuff is a little too durable.
The plastic produced 60 years ago is still around today and likely will be with usfor centuries or longer. If it’s not incinerated, it piles up in landfills or theenvironment, most notably in the oceans. As of 2015, the plastic boom has beenaccompanied by nearly 7 billion tons of waste, according to the analysis.
The study, led by Roland Geyer, an industrial ecologist at UC Santa Barbara,tallies the sheer amount of plastic humans have produced, how it’s used andultimately where it ends up.
And the numbers are dizzying.
Tons of plastic ever produced
10/31/2017 Plastic trash could top 13 billion tons by 2050. And recycling doesn't help much - LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-plastic-trash-20170721-htmlstory.html 2/7
5.4 billion
661 million
Tons of plastic waste produced
Tons of plastic discarded in either a landfill or the environment
Tons of plastic recycled
About 42% of all plastics ever produced have been used in packaging. The nextlargest use for plastics is in construction, which accounts for 19% of the share.
“Roughly half of all the steel we make goes into construction, so it will havedecades of use; plastic is the opposite,” Geyer said in a statement. “Half of allplastics become waste after four or fewer years of use.”
The researchers excluded bio-degradable or bio-based plastics from their study,which has a global production capacity of only about 4.4 million tons.
Instead, the paper focuses on the most common types of plastic — includingpolyethylene and polypropylene used in packaging, polystyrene used in bags andfoam, and acrylic fibers.
10/31/2017 Plastic trash could top 13 billion tons by 2050. And recycling doesn't help much - LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-plastic-trash-20170721-htmlstory.html 3/7
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
0
150
300
450 tons
Global plastic production since 1950
Sean Greene / @latimesgraphicsSource: Geyer et al
Packaging
Construction & building
Consumer & institutional products
Transportation
Electrical/Electronic
Industrial machinery
Other
44.8%
18.8
11.9
6.7
3.8
0.8
13.2
TotalHow the plastic produced from 2002-2014 was used
Source: Geyer et al*Based on data from the United States, Europe, China and India.
Of all the plastic ever produced, about 30% of it is still in use.
That leaves about 6.9 billion tons of plastic waste.
Of that, we’ve recycled 9% and incinerated 12%. The remaining 79% was left topile up in landfills or the environment.
10/31/2017 Plastic trash could top 13 billion tons by 2050. And recycling doesn't help much - LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-plastic-trash-20170721-htmlstory.html 4/7
Recycling, the researchers say, doesn’t prevent plastic waste — it merely delays itsentry into the landfill or the environment.
“The only way to permanently eliminate plastic waste” is to burn or melt it down,the authors write. “Thus, near-permanent contamination of the naturalenvironment with plastic waste is a growing concern.”
In the ocean, plastic debris floats on the surface, where sunlight breaks it downinto tiny millimeter- and micrometer-sized particles called microplastics. Thesecan be mistaken for food by birds and possibly contaminate the marine foodchain.
Every major ocean basin now has its own so-called “garbage patch,” a collectionof plastic pollution caught up in the swirling currents. In a previous study, thesame researchers estimated about 4 million to 13 million tons of plastic wasteentered the marine environment in 2010.
This is how hundreds of tons of plastic trash end up in Arctic Ocean »
Researchers are also increasingly reporting contamination from microplasticsand acrylic fibers on land and in freshwater ecosystems, according to the study.
A worker piles up plastic bottles collected at a recycling center in Hefei, China's Anhui province. (STR / AFP/Getty Images)
10/31/2017 Plastic trash could top 13 billion tons by 2050. And recycling doesn't help much - LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-plastic-trash-20170721-htmlstory.html 5/7
28.7 billion
“Plastic waste is now so ubiquitous in the environment that it has been suggestedas a geological indicator of the proposed Anthropocene era,” the study authorswrite.
“Plastic waste is now so ubiquitous in the
environment that it has been suggested as ageological indicator of the proposed
Anthropocene era.— Roland Geyer and colleagues, in Science Advances
If production continues at its current rate, the world faces a glut of plastic wasteby 2050.
Tons of plastic resins produced by 2050
A plastic bottle lies among other debris washed ashore on an Indian Ocean beach in Uswetakeiyawa, Sri Lanka. (GemunuAmarasinghe / Associated Press)
10/31/2017 Plastic trash could top 13 billion tons by 2050. And recycling doesn't help much - LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-plastic-trash-20170721-htmlstory.html 6/7
6.6 billion
9.9 billion
13.2 billion
13.2 billion
Tons of acrylic fibers produced by 2050
Tons of plastic recycled by 2050
Tons of plastic incinerated by 2050
Tons of plastic discarded in landfills or the environment by 2050
The study authors insist they are not anti-plastic, but they say these numbers canhelp policymakers manage how the material is managed at the end of its usefullife.
“There are areas where plastics are indispensable, such as the medical industry,”Kara Lavender Law, a co-author of the study and research professor at the SeaEducation Assn. in Woods Hole, Mass., said in a statement. “But I do think weneed to take a careful look at our use of plastics and ask if it makes sense.”
Put another way:
“We cannot continue with business as usual unless we want a planet that isliterally covered in plastic,” Geyer said.
10/31/2017 Plastic trash could top 13 billion tons by 2050. And recycling doesn't help much - LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-plastic-trash-20170721-htmlstory.html 7/7
Support our journalism
Copyright © 2017, Los Angeles Times
Please consider subscribing today to support stories like this one. Already
a subscriber? Your support makes our work possible. Thank you. Get full
access to our signature journalism for just 99 cents for the first four
weeks.
Twitter: @seangreene89
In 2014, the United States recycled only about 9% of its plastic, while Europe and China boasted recycling rates of 30% and 25%,respectively. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
