The prediction that by mid-century, the oceans will contain more plastic waste than fish, ton for ton, has become one of the most-quoted statistics and a rallying cry to do something about it. The new study, published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances, is the first global analysis of all plastics ever made—and their fate. Of the 8. Of that, only nine percent has been recycle d. The vast majority—79 percent—is accumulating in landfills or sloughing off in the natural environment as litter.
Meaning: at some point, much of it ends up in the oceans, the final sink. If present trends continue, by , there will be 12 billion metric tons of plastic in landfills. That amount is 35, times as heavy as the Empire State Building. Half the resins and fibers used in plastics were produced in the last 13 years, the study found.
China alone accounts for 28 percent of global resin and 68 percent of polyester polyamide and acrylic fibers. Geyer, an engineer by training, specializes in industrial ecology as a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The rapid acceleration of plastic manufacturing, which so far has doubled roughly every 15 years, has outpaced nearly every other man-made material.
And, it is unlike virtually every other material. Half of all steel produced, for example, is used in construction, with a decades-long lifespan. Half of all plastic manufactured becomes trash in less than a year, the study found. Much of the growth in plastic production has been the increased use of plastic packaging, which accounts for more than 40 percent of non-fiber plastic.
The same team, led by Jambeck, produced the first study that assessed the amount of plastic trash that flows into the oceans annually. That research, published in , estimated that 8 million metric tons of plastic ends up in the oceans every year. That is the equivalent to five grocery bags of plastic trash for every foot of coastline around the globe.
Gaining control of plastic waste is now such a large task that it calls for a comprehensive, global approach, Jambeck says, that involves rethinking plastic chemistry, product design, recycling strategies, and consumer use.
The United States ranks behind Europe 30 percent and China 25 percent in recycling, the study found. Recycling in the U. Or phasing them out. Originally published by natgeo. This vapour is cooled in a distillation column and the condensed liquids are separated on a boiling range to produce four hydrocarbon liquids and oils: naphtha, distillate gas oil, heavy gas oil and heavy wax residue, akin to bitumen.
These products are then shipped to the petrochemical industry. As with other feedstock techniques, there is no down-cycling as the polymer bonds can be formed anew, meaning the plastics can be infinitely recycled. Mahon said: "The hydrocarbon element of the feedstock will be converted into new, stable hydrocarbon products for use in the manufacture of new plastics and other chemicals. Mura's Teesside plant, due for completion in , aims to process 80, tonnes of previously unrecyclable plastic waste every year, as a blueprint for a global rollout, with sites planned in Germany and the US.
By , the company plans to provide one million tonnes of recycling capacity in operation or development globally. Scientists such as Sharon George, senior lecturer in environmental science at Keele University, have welcomed Mura's development.
The plant that is being constructed at Teesside in the UK aims to process 80, tonnes of plastic waste every year Credit: Mura. Yet in the past 30 years, chemical recycling has shown serious limits. It is energy-intensive, has faced technical challenges and proved difficult to scale up to industrial levels. In , a report by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives Gaia , a group of organisations and individuals who promote social movements to reduce waste and pollution, concluded that chemical recycling is polluting, energy intensive and prone to technical failures.
The report concluded that chemical recycling was not a viable solution to the plastic problem, especially at the pace and scale needed. Additionally, if the end product of chemical recycling is an oil used for fuel then the process does not reduce the need for virgin plastic, and burning such fuels would release greenhouse gases just as ordinary fossil fuels do.
We should focus on increasing resource efficiency as a way to minimise waste through greater reuse, refill and repair systems — not relying on recycling to be the saviour. But Mura argues that their plant will fill a much-needed niche. Mura's process aims to complement existing mechanical processes and infrastructure, not compete with them, recycling materials that would otherwise go to landfill, incineration or into the environment.
All the waste plastic they process will be made new plastics or other materials, none will be burnt for fuel. Many chemical recycling plants in the past have gone bust, but Mura believes the supercritical water technique it uses will make it economically viable Credit: Mura. Mura hopes its use of supercritical water for efficient heat transfer will allow them to scale-up to industrial levels, lowering energy use and costs. It could be a crucial factor for success where others have failed.
One of the main reasons chemical recycling has failed to take off so far has been financial collapse. Financial difficulty is something that has held back not just chemical recycling but all kinds of plastic recycling. Wingstrand says the only path to "dedicated, ongoing and sufficient funding at scale" for recycling is through mandatory, fee-based Extended Producer Responsibility schemes. These would see all industries that introduce plastic contributing funding to collect and process their packaging after its use.
But Mahon believes a system like Mura's is another way to shift the balance sheets in favour of plastic recycling by producing an oil that can be sold at a profit. Even with the ability to unmake all types of plastic so they can be reused again, it is unlikely to make all of the problems with plastic pollution go away. With so much ending up in landfill and the environment, plastic will continue doing what it was made to do — endure. The emissions from travel it took to report this story were 0kg CO2.
The digital emissions from this story are an estimated 1. Find out more about how we calculated this figure here. Join one million Future fans by liking us on Facebook , or follow us on Twitter or Instagram. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.
As a result, the actual recycling percentages of each also tend to be quite different. This means that only around 9 percent is being recycled. As it is, that 91 percent just sits in landfills, piling up and breaking down slowly into arguably more dangerous microplastics.
National Geographic reports that by , approximately 12 billion metric tons of plastic will be sitting in landfills across the globe. For scale, that amount of plastic weighs approximately 35, times more than the whole Empire State Building. Metal fares a little better than plastic in terms of recycling. Worldwide, the number was around 32 percent, but that still equated to approximately Glass , like metal, is much easier to recycle than plastic.
EPA estimates from as recently as indicate that around 3. This was about The important thing to note was that only 5 percent actually made it into landfills, and since glass can take thousands of years or more to fully break down, that's a good thing.
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