More than 9 billion tons of plastic have been manufactured since the 1950s, and the vast majority has been thrown away, according to a new study. For example, researchers estimated that the amount of plastic being used now represents 30 percent of all the plastic that has ever been produced. So, on average, each person in Europe adds 34.5 kilos of plastic containers to the mountain of plastic waste every year. The document says it is the first attempt to measure the total amount of plastic produced since the beginning of mass plastic production in the middle of the 20th century.
Of this amount, between 10 and 13% will be emitted from the production of plastic and the incineration of plastic waste. But plastics have become so pervasive that you can't go anywhere without finding plastic waste in our environment, including our oceans. Science is also studying more fully the role played by the production, incineration and recycling of plastic and plastic pollution in climate change. In addition to all the plastic waste that comes from the earth, fishing is also a huge source of plastic pollution.
Not all microplastics are due to fragmentation, but they can be caused by the wear and tear of automobile tires, the use and washing of synthetic clothing, the rinsing of toiletries and cosmetics, and the “spilling” of knuckles, small plastic granules, by the plastics industry. This document provides reliable data not only on the amount of plastic we have manufactured over the years, but also on its composition and the amount and type of additives contained in the plastic. Despite the bleak picture shown by the results of the study, the authors insisted that they do not want to eliminate plastic from the market, but rather that they want to see a much more responsible and sustainable use of plastic. The following map shows the composition of the plastic soup in the different oceans and you can see the type of plastic that floats in them. The problem of plastic waste is an issue that is increasingly difficult to ignore, since it is estimated that there are currently 150 million tons of plastic in the world's oceans and another 12.2 million tons each year, most of which come from terrestrial sources and can cause significant damage to marine fauna if ingested, as demonstrated by a study carried out by the Grantham Institute of Imperial College London in the Arctic Circle.
