Non -recycled plastic dominates the world

Only 9.5 % of the plastic materials produced worldwide in 2022 were manufactured with recycled materials. The Quanyin University Tsinghua (China) analyzed the existing dasts. It is a worrying figure. Non -recycled plastic dominates the world.

The findings are in ‘Communications Earth & Environment’. They are part of an exhaustive analysis of the global plastic sector. It reveals a great increase in the amount of plastic that is discarded by incineration and substantial regional differences in plastic consumption.

Upward production

Plastic production increased from two million tons per year by 1950 to 400 million tons per year in 2022. It will reach 800 million tons per year by 2050. Consequently, plastic pollution is a worldwide and growing world problem. It raises important challenges for the environment, economy and public health. There is little thorough analysis of the global contemporary plastic sector.

Quanyin Tan and his colleagues conducted an analysis of the world plastic sector in 2022. For this, they used national statistics data, sector reports and international databases to prepare a detailed panorama. They found the key trends in the world plastic supply chain. Of the 400 million tons of plastic produced during the year, just under 38 million (9.5 %) occurred from recycled plastic. 98 % of the remaining 362 million tons occurred from fossil fuels. Mainly coal and oil.

Little recycling

Non -recycled plastic dominates the world. Around 268 million tons of plastic were discarded during the year. Only 27.9% qualified for possible recycling. 36.2% were sent directly to the landfill and 22.2% were sent directly to the incineration. Only half of the classified plastic was really recycled.

The United States had the highest consumption of per capita plastic. It is an average of 216 kilos of plastic consumed per person per year. Meanwhile, China consumed the largest amount of plastic in general: 80 million tons per year.