Plastic is everywhere
More than 9 billion tons of plastic have been produced since the 1950s. Every single corner of the earth is now polluted by plastic - land, rivers, oceans, and the air that we breathe. Plastic has been found in the water we drink, and the food we consume - even our teabags contain plastic (hence the name of this website). Plastic litters our streets, the countryside, our beaches, the rivers and oceans, and even in the Arctic, microscopic particles of plastic are falling out of the sky with snow.
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Much of our plastic waste ends up in the oceans
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch - one of several similar areas of concentrated plastic pollution that have accumulated in our oceans - now covers an estimated surface areas of 1.6 million square kilometres (an area three times the size of France). It is estimated that 8 million tonnes of plastic are entering the ocean each year.
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This Guardian article explains that the plastic scientists can see and measure, in the garbage patches and on beaches, accounts for only a tiny fraction of the total plastic entering the water. So where is the other 99% of ocean plastic? It is becoming apparent that plastic ends up in huge quantities in the deepest parts of the ocean, buried in sediment on the seafloor. We don't yet know what impact this is having on marine life and the human food supply.
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Plastics enter the ocean in many ways:-
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Littering - rubbish dropped on the street gets carried away by rainwater and wind into streams and rivers and through drains.
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Flushing - plastic products get flushed down toilets or washed down the sink
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Washing - tiny plastic microfibres are released into waterways when we wash our clothes
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Fishing industry - Lost and abandoned fishing gear makes up the majority of large plastic pollution in the oceans, according to a report by Greenpeace.
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Poor waste management - much of the waste currently circulating in the world's oceans is thought to have originated in developing countries without effective waste management infrastructure (some of these countries are the same countries we have been carelessly exporting our plastic waste to - see below).
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Plastic production is accelerating climate change
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Nearly all plastic is made from fossil fuels. Consequently, plastic is among the most significant and fastest growing sources of industrial greenhouse gas emissions. In May 2019 the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) in the US published a 'cradle to grave' report on the greenhouse gas emissions of plastic at each stage of its lifecycle, from its birth as fossil fuel, through to extraction, transport, refining, and manufacture, to waste management at the end of its useful life, to its impact upon entering the environment. ​The report found that in 2019 the lifecycle of global plastic production – from extraction to disposal – was equivalent to the impact on the climate of 189 500MW coal-fired power stations. By 2050, the report predicts, the global plastic footprint will be equivalent to 615 coal plants running at full capacity.
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According to this Friends of the Earth article, planet-warming gases from plastics production are set to grow by almost 300%. Unabated, plastic will soon be a bigger contributor to climate change than aviation and shipping put together.
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​​Only 9 % of plastic waste ever produced has actually been recycled.
On 5 June 2018 (World Environment Day) - UN Environment released a report examining the global state of plastic pollution in 2018. The report warned that every year more than 400 million tons of plastic waste is produced in the world, and of all the plastic waste ever produced, current estimates were that (as of 2015) only 9 percent has been recycled, 12% has been incinerated, and 79% accumulated in landfill or in the environment.
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​Even if it could all be recycled, plastic can only be recycled ONCE or TWICE
Unlike glass and metals, which can be recycled over and over again without losing quality, plastic can only be recycled once or twice before it reaches the end of its lifespan. It is usually not possible to recycle like for like, so when plastic is recycled it is usually downgraded, which means that it is made into something else entirely. For example:-
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Milk bottles and other plastic containers can be made into plastic lumber, garden furniture and decking, recycling bins.
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Plastic bags and wraps can be made into new plastic bags, then into plastic lumber
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Plastic water/juice/soft drink bottles can be made into clothing, fleece jackets, insulation for coats and sleeping bags, carpeting.
These items may have some use for a while, but what happens once the second item reaches the end of its useful lifespan? Plastic recycling only delays, rather than prevents, later disposal in landfill or incineration.
What is the UK's contribution to the plastic crisis?
It is estimated that five million tonnes of plastic is used every year in the UK, nearly half of which is packaging. The government publishes regular statistics on the amount of plastic (and other) packaging produced and on its recycling rates, however, these statistics have been questioned in independent reports and by the National Audit Office.
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Eunomia report: Plastic Packaging - Shedding light on UK data (March 2018)
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This report by independent consultancy firm Eunomia looked at the the UK system for recycling plastic packaging to determine whether it was as effective as official statistics suggested. It concluded that:-
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whilst official UK statistics stated that in 2015 UK households and businesses generated 2.26 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste, the actual amount of plastic packaging waste was more likely to be around 3.5 million tonnes.
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whilst official UK figures for recycling rates for plastic packaging were 39% in 2015, 38% in 2014 and 32% in 2013, the real rates (by Eunomia's estimates) would have been in the range of 18%-23% in 2013 and 23%-29% in 2015 (i.e. the recycling rate has been consistently over-stated by 9-10 percentage points and the actual recycling rate should be just three quarters of what has been reported by UK government to Eurostat.
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the UK may well have failed to meet its plastic packaging recycling targets under the EU Waste Framework Directive in each year from 2008-2012.
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It was reasonable to state that no one really knows what the real recycling rate for plastic packaging currently is. It is almost certainly, though, well below what is being reported in official statistics.
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National Audit Office report: Packaging Recycling Obligations (July 2018)
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In July 2018, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) was criticised in a report by the National Audit Office for its failure to ensure that companies were meeting their packaging recycling obligations (the UK's obligations under the EU Directive on packaging and packaging waste). The UK Government's estimate of tonnes of packaging used by UK households and businesses in 2017 was 11 million tonnes. Of this, 64% was reported as having been recycled (apparently exceeding the EU recycling target of 55%). For plastic packaging alone, 46% was reported as having been recycled (also apparently exceeding the EU target of 22.5%)
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However, between 2002 and 2017 there was a sixfold increase in the amount of packaging material being exported* for recycling. In 2017 exports accounted for 66% of plastic packaging recycled (for paper, the figure was also 66%, and for non-paper/non-plastic (i.e. glass, aluminium, steel and wool) the figure was 22%). DEFRA reported all exported waste as being 100% recycled, regardless of what happens to it when it leaves the UK.
The NAO report identified that DEFRA's estimates of recycling rates were not sufficiently robust; the department failed to adjust its figures to account for undetected fraud and error (which was unlikely to be negligible, given that there was a financial incentive for recycling companies to over-claim), and wasn't carrying out adequate checks to ensure that the material being sent overseas is actually being recycled at all.
The report raised concerns that the reported recycling rate for plastic packaging were overstated.
*In recent years, the UK (and other countries including the US) relied heavily on China to take our unwanted plastic packaging. China had previously been keen to accept foreign recycling as a valuable input into its manufacturing industry, but improper handling of waste, and a lack of effective supervision turned the country into a major polluter, which has caused many health and environmental problems.
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In 2018, China decided it had had enough, and the Chinese government announced a complete ban on the import of certain wastes including unsorted mixed paper and post-consumer plastics, as well as restrictions on the import of other grades of waste. So other countries began taking our plastic (and other) waste - Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Turkey, Poland, and Indonesia to name a few.
But these countries cannot cope with the sheer scale of the plastic waste problem either. As in China, the waste is often sifted through, then either burned or abandoned, eventually finding its way into rivers and oceans. In May 2019, the Malaysian government began turning back container ships of waste, citing public health concerns. Thailand and India have also now announced bans on the import of foreign plastic waste.
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Further info
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House of Commons Library Briefing Paper on plastic waste in the UK (published on 7 January 2020) - includes statistics on plastic waste and information on UK Government and devolved Government plans and ambitions to reduce avoidable plastic waste, and examples of voluntary initiatives from the plastics industry, environmental groups and retailers.
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8515/
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If you'd like to know more about the global plastic crisis, here are some resources I have found particularly useful:-
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Our World In Data (OWID) - Plastic pollution
https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution
Online scientific publication focusing on the world's largest problems such as poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks, and inequality. See page on plastic pollution.
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The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/environment
The Guardian environment section - for all environment related issues
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Earth Day
https://www.earthday.org/fact-sheet-plastics-in-the-ocean/
Some facts about ocean plastics
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The Story of Stuff Project
Launched in 2007 with a groundbreaking documentary The Story of Stuff, looking at our consumption-crazed culture. Since then the project has produced dozens more animated shorts and documentaries charting a path to a more sustainable future. The project's first feature-length documentary The Story of Plastic - 'a seething expose of the true cost or plastic pollution – and the heroes and villains at work behind the crisis' - premieres on the Discovery Channel on Earth Day (22 April 2020).
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The Story of Plastic
https://www.storyofplastic.org/
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