Five billion tonnes of plastic — almost two thirds of the total produced — have been dumped in landfill sites or the natural environment, a study has found.
Humans have created 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste since large-scale industrial production of the synthetic materials began in the early 1950s.
Only 9 per cent has been recycled and 12 per cent incinerated. The remaining 79 per cent is lying in landfill sites or is polluting oceans and landscapes, according to the first global analysis of the production, use and fate of plastics.
Scientists from the universities of Georgia and California compiled production statistics for resins, fibres and additives from a variety of industry sources. They found that global production of plastics increased from two million tonnes in 1950 to 400 million tonnes in 2015.
A total of 8.3 billion tonnes has been made over that 65-year period, of which two billion tonnes is still in use.
Advertisement
Jenna Jambeck, co-author and an engineer at the University of Georgia, said: “Most plastics don’t biodegrade in any meaningful sense, so the plastic waste humans have generated could be with us for hundreds or even thousands of years.”
The pace of plastic production shows no sign of slowing down, according to the journal Science Advances. Of all the plastic produced, about half was made in the past 13 years.