“Plastic pollution is associated with diverse human health impacts, such as elevated risk for cancers, cardiovascular disease, and reproductive health. The plastics system is also accelerating climate change, with emissions associated with the extraction and processing of oil and gas used to make plastic, plastic production and plastic waste management.”
The research separated global plastic production and consumption into four regions: North America, China, the EU and the remainder, referred to as Majority World. It examined consumption, waste generation and mismanaged waste.
Annual global plastic consumption reached 547m tonnes in 2020, 86% of which was virgin plastic and 14% recycled plastic. China was the largest consumer of plastics, accounting for 36% of consumption, followed by Majority World 28%, EU 18% and North America 18%.
But while China’s plastic consumption is likely to peak in 2030 then decrease, consumption in North America and Majority World is predicted to grow.
Without intervention to curb production, plastic consumption would increase to 749m tonnes by 2050, but interventions could have a significant effect, the report found. To tackle packaging waste, the creation of a packaging consumption tax would reduce waste, by 145m tonnes.
Introducing a ban on single-use plastic to tackle packaging waste would lower consumption by 98m tonnes, and a reuse mandate (like a deposit return scheme) could reduce plastic packaging by 74m tonnes by 2050.
The interventions on packaging would have huge environmental benefits, the report said, because leakage of often lightweight plastic packaging into the environment was estimated to be particularly large.
