Our Plastic Challenge

Once, plastic was considered a miracle material, its synthetic polymers giving it astonishing durability. Its spread became a modern epic — the World Economic Forum finds the use of plastics increased twenty-fold over the last fifty years. But plastic also poses a massive challenge.

Currently, 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced annually. But, as the UN finds, only nine percent of all plastic waste has ever been recycled. The rest — over 6.3 billion tonnes — is buried or cast off into nature, leaching into rivers carrying this to the seas.



The World Bank finds eight million tonnes of plastic waste enter the seas each year — by 2050, the world’s oceans could contain more plastic than fish. Already, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a collection of debris the size of

Texas

, has created a lifeless zone in the Pacific. Microplastics have polluted coral atolls, mighty peaks,

Arctic

snows and the soil beneath our feet. Worryingly, plastics are now travelling through water, sediments and air back to their point of origin — us.



The implications are profound. Plastic, which degrades over centuries, derives from fossil fuels, increasing global warming. Plastic threatens over 700 species, disrupting nature’s ecosystem benefits — UNEP finds the natural capital cost of plastic use is $75 billion annually. Alongside, scientists find certain chemicals from plastics making their way into the food and water humans consume, estimating we could be ingesting over 50,000 microplastic particles a year.

However, solutions are possible. Recycling is the most effective way to reduce plastic discards. Importantly, with billions lacking recycling services, a Pew Centre study finds closing the collection gap means connecting 5,00,000 people a day upto 2040 — the livelihoods prospects are enormous. Industry also holds keys. In the 1980s, industry created the breakthrough solution of recycling.

Today, it could manage end-of-life plastic products. Meanwhile, scientists are working on biodegradable plastics. Alongside, as Times Evoke’s global experts emphasise, we can all make a difference by educating ourselves about the plastics in our lives. Join Times Evoke on an exploration of the world’s

plastic challenge

— and its solutions.

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