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Did you know?
109 million metric tons of plastic have accumulated in rivers and 30 million metric tons in the ocean, according to the OECD.
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Taking a Deeper Dive
OECD projects plastic use, waste, findings, and policies to 2060
The graphic shows the flow of mismanaged plastic waste to aquatic environments. This image reinforces OpenOceans Global’s core concept of focusing on rivers and stemming the flow of plastic at the points of contamination before it reaches the sea. Source: OECD ENV-Linkages model, based on Lebreton and Andrady.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is an international organization with 38 member countries from North and South America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The organization's mission is to build better policies for better lives. Two recent OECD reports address the ocean plastic crisis.
The first report develops “a regional and sectoral perspective through a comprehensive mapping of material flows and economic drivers throughout the plastics lifecycle. It provides an internally consistent and comprehensive view of the production, trade, and use of plastics, as well as plastic waste management and leakage into the environment.”
The second report provides a roadmap for “how governments can chart the course of global action to deliver on the ambitions set at the United Nations Environmental Assembly and beyond.”
Highlights from the two reports are listed below.
Plastic Production and Disposition
- Globally, the annual production of plastics has doubled, from 234 million metric tons (Mt) in 2000 to 460 Mt in 2019. (1)
- Global production of recycled plastic has more than quadrupled in the last two decades but is still only 6% of the total feedstock. (1)
- Plastic waste has more than doubled, from 156 Mt in 2000 to 353 Mt in 2019. (1)
- The disposition of plastic waste (1):
- 9% was recycled
- 19% was incinerated
- 50% went to sanitary landfills
- 22% was disposed of in uncontrolled dumpsites, burned in open pits, or leaked into the environment
Plastic in the Environment
- 109 million metric tons (Mt) of plastic have accumulated in rivers and 30 Mt in the ocean. (1)
- In 2019, 22 Mt of plastics leaked into the environment globally; the baseline scenario projects this to double to 44 Mt by 2060. (2)
- Mismanaged waste accounted for 86% of all macro plastic leakage in 2019. (2)
- Leakage from marine activities and microplastics is projected to grow quickly in the coming decades. (2)
- The flow of plastics leaking from mismanaged waste into aquatic environments (streams, rivers, lakes, and the ocean) is projected to increase by 91% to 2060, reaching 11.6 Mt per year in 2060 from 6.1 Mt per year in 2019. (2)
- Continuous inflows of plastic waste drive up the accumulated stocks of plastics in aquatic environments to 493 Mt by 2060, more than three times 2019 levels. (2)
- The build-up of plastics in rivers implies that leakage into the ocean will continue for decades to come, even if mismanaged plastic waste is significantly reduced. (1)
GHG Emissions
- Plastics contribute 3.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions throughout their lifecycle. (1)
- In 2019, plastics generated 1.8 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, with 90% coming from their production and from conversion from fossil fuels. (1)
Policy Findings
- Recycled plastic production could be increased by pushing extended producer responsibility measures, recycled content targets, decoupling prices for PET, and increasing innovations in technology. (1)
- Innovative technologies can reduce the amount of plastic needed by prolonging the useful life of products and facilitating recycling. (1)
- The current plastics policy landscape is fragmented and can be strengthened significantly. Only 13 countries have national policy instruments that provide direct financial incentives to sort plastic waste at the source. (1)
- Domestic public policies need to be strengthened in the following ways (1):
- Close leakage pathways by building sanitary waste management infrastructure, improving collection practices, and enlarging the scope of anti-litter policies.
- Creating incentives for recycling and enhancing sorting at the source.
- Restraining demand and optimizing design to make recycled plastic value chains more circular and price competitive.
- Strengthen international cooperation by (1):
- Making major investments in basic waste management infrastructure.
- Investing an estimated EUR 25 billion a year in low and middle-income countries.
- Efficiently using such investments will also require effective legal frameworks to enforce disposal obligations.
References:
- Global Plastics Outlook: Economic Drivers, Environmental Impacts and Policy Options, OECD, February 22, 2022
- Global Plastics Outlook: Policy Scenarios to 2060, OECD, June 3, 2022
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Tracking Plastic News
- From waste to commodity: delivering on the EU’s vision of a circular plastics economy, Minderoo Foundation, September 14, 2022
- Only 5% of plastic waste generated by the U.S. last year was recycled, report says, The Guardian, October 24, 2022
- A sneak peek into upcoming plastics treaty talks, Plastic News, October 25, 2022 (paywall)
- The world is drowning in plastic. Here’s how it all started, Wired, October 27, 2022
- Ocean plastic ‘vacuums’ are sucking up marine life along with trash, Popular Science, October 31, 2022
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Mapping Plastic-Fouled Coastlines
See more beaches fouled by plastic on our ocean plastic trash map. To report a shoreline pervasively fouled by significant amounts of plastic debris, use our online plastic trash reporting app.
This Month’s Coastal Hotspot: Hopkins Village Beach, Belize
Hopkins Village is a small coastal community in Belize with approximately 3 miles of coastline and 1,200 residents. Locals perceive plastic and other trash comes from cruise ships/boats, fishing vessels, cayes, natural processes, local tourism, and other outside locations. Belize implemented a single-use plastic ban in 2019. This banned importation of certain plastic products. No company or traveler is permitted to bring these products into the country. 78% of community members interviewed who are aware of the single-use plastic ban feel the ban is good for the community but have seen little to no enforcement. More information on Hopkins Village and the plastic debris on its beach can be found here. Image credit: Marine Debris Team with the UCF Citizen Science GIS REU
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Solutions
See more solutions on our ocean plastic solutions page. Have a solution we should know about? Submit it here.
This Month’s Featured Solution: ByBlock
Producing concrete is acknowledged as a process with significant carbon emissions. What if there was a way to use plastic waste to replace concrete blocks used in construction? ByFusion, a company founded in 2017, uses heat and steam to create ByBlocks, a replacement for concrete blocks with 83% less CO2 emissions. ByBlocks are created by the patented ByFusion Blocker, the first plastic waste diversion platform designed to enable communities and corporations to transform their plastic waste into this high-demand, reusable building material. ByBlocks are not made with glues or adhesives, won’t crack or crumble like standard concrete blocks, and the production process creates zero waste – 1 ton of plastic makes 1 ton of ByBlocks. Image credit: ByFusion
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Meet the Experts and Leaders
OpenOceans Global is identifying ocean plastic experts from around the world. Here is one expert leading efforts to reduce plastic pollution that you should know about.
Dr. Dawn Wright, Chief Scientist, Esri
At OpenOceans Global, we realize the importance of mapping to better understand the ocean plastic crisis. Dr. Dawn Wright, the chief scientist for Esri, is a world leader in strengthening the scientific foundation for Esri mapping software and services. Her contributions to addressing the ocean plastic crisis come through the development of the Ocean GIS Initiative at Esri. Under her leadership at Esri and through the development of the ArcGIS Marine Data Model, understanding the flows of ocean plastic from source to fate is far more possible and creates visual tools for sharing information and implementing solutions to the ocean plastic crisis. A specialist in marine geology, she has authored and contributed to some of the most definitive literature on marine GIS.
On July 12, Dr. Wright made history as the first Black person to dive to the deepest place on Earth, the Challenger Deep, a point 10,919 meters (35,823 feet) below the surface in the Mariana Trench. The mission used high-resolution sonar to map a part of our planet in never-before-seen detail. The first thing she saw when she reached the bottom was a bottle.
Dr. Wright is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, as well as a Fellow of the American Association of Geographers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Geological Society of America, the California Academy of Sciences, and the Oceanography Society. She maintains an affiliated faculty appointment as a Professor of Geography and Oceanography in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. Wright holds an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Physical Geography and Marine Geology from UC Santa Barbara. Image credit: Dawn Wright
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