From yogurt pots to water bottles, cosmetic packaging and children’s toys – millions of tons of plastic are produced every year. Much of it ends up in garbage, polluting our oceans and endangering wildlife.
But which country is really the worst plastic waste sinner? According to a recent study, this is the United States!
Overall, the United States produced about 42 million tons of plastic waste in 2016 — more than twice that of China and more than all countries in the European Union, write the authors of the expert report that was presented to the US government on Wednesday.
Every US citizen produces 130 kg of plastic waste annually
According to the report, each US citizen generates an average of 130 kg of plastic waste per year, followed by South Korea with 88 kg of plastic waste per year. “The success of the miraculous invention of plastic in the 20th century has also led to a global influx of plastic waste,” said President of the Congress of American Experts, Margaret Spring.
According to it, global plastic production increased from 20 million tons in 1966 to 381 million in 2015 – a 20-fold increase within half a century.
According to this, an estimated 8 million tonnes of plastic waste enters the environment every year. This corresponds to one garbage truck per minute that dumps its load into the ocean. At the current rate, the amount of plastic in the ocean could reach 53 million tonnes annually by 2030, which would be about half the total weight of fish caught annually from the ocean. One reason for this is also that plastic recycling is not keeping pace with plastic production.
what can be done
The report proposes several measures to deal with the crisis. It is especially important to produce less new plastic. Other proposed measures include the use of materials that perish faster and are easier to recycle, the reduction of certain single-use plastics, and better waste management, for example through techniques to remove microplastics from sewage. From.
“This is the most comprehensive and damaging report ever on plastic pollution,” said Judith Enck, president of the environmental organization Beyond Plastics. He said collecting garbage in the ocean would not save the oceans. Political decision-makers need to act immediately.
