Around the world, one million plastic drinking bottles are purchased every minute, while 500 billion single-use plastic bags are used worldwide every year.
This concerning situation sounds the alarm about the increasing seriousness of plastic waste pollution threatening the living environment of humans.
Plastic pollution is one of the most pressing environmental problems in the world today, requiring strong cooperation and commitment from the international community.
Despite the appeals from scientists and environmental activists, this situation has not improved, but is even getting worse. Environmental pollution leads to climate change and a series of dangerous diseases, making human life increasingly threatened.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), global production of synthetic polymers, which form the building blocks of plastic, has increased 230-fold since the 1950s. Total production doubled between 2000 and 2019 to 460 million tons, faster than commodities like steel, aluminium or cement.
According to the OECD, if left unchecked, that figure will have almost tripled to 1.2 billion tons by 2060.
The growth in plastic production has mainly occurred in the United States, the Middle East and China.
The sheer volume of plastic garbage produced around the globe has more than doubled in 20 years, from 156 million tonnes in 2000 to 353 million tonnes in 2019.
It is expected to almost triple to just over one billion tonnes by 2060.
What is worrying is how this huge amount of plastic waste is handled. According to the OECD, just 9% of the world's plastic waste is recycled; 19% is incinerated; and nearly 50% ends up in controlled landfills.
The remaining 22 percent is abandoned in illegal dumps, burned in the open air, or released into the environment, putting human health at great risk.
By 2060, the OECD predicts the volume of waste in the environment will double to 44 million tonnes, mostly larger plastics but also tiny particles that have been detected in blood and breast milk.
In addition, plastics also bear a significant carbon footprint.
In 2019, plastics generated 1.8 billion tonnes of planet-warming greenhouse gases, or 3.4 percent of the global total, said the OECD and UNEP.
Around 90% of these emissions came from the production and processing of plastics, which are derived from crude oil and natural gas, according to the OECD and UNEP.
Meanwhile, a report, released by Statistical Office of the EU (Eurostat), shows that the amount of plastic waste imported from the EU last year rose by 35% compared to 2022. The EU exported 8.5 million tons of paper, plastic and glass in 2023, with more than one-fifth destined for Malaysia's dumps.
The report said that for exports of recyclable plastic, Türkiye was the largest destination (at 22%), followed by Malaysia (21%) and Indonesia (19%). The volume exported into Malaysia amounted to 283,000 tonnes in 2023, an increase of 99,000 tonnes from the previous year.
Plastics also bear a significant carbon footprint. In 2019, plastics generated 1.8 billion tonnes of planet-warming greenhouse gases, or 3.4 percent of the global total, said the OECD and UNEP.
The OECD issued the warning in the context that less than a month remains until fifth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) Busan, the Republic of Korea, to reach a global agreement to tackle plastic pollution.
Observers say the negotiations are progressing very slowly. The biggest disagreement is currently a group of countries, especially oil-producing countries, who believe that the agreement should focus on management of downstream waste.
Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) and many Asian and African countries want common regulations on limiting plastic production, waste management, and recycling, as well as emissions from plastic production.
Given this worrying situation, many governments have issued regulations to restrict the production and consumption of single-use plastic items. Notably, Indonesia is promoting research on projects to transform low-value plastic waste mined from landfills into commercial products such as plastic tiles and plastic flooring.
Environmental protection organisations expect similar projects to be promoted in a global effort to prevent plastic waste.
