Plastic pollution has grabbed the world’s attention, and with good cause.

More than 100 years after its invention, we’re addicted. To pass a day without encountering some form of plastic is nearly impossible. We’ve always been eager to embrace the promise of a product that could make life cheaper, faster, easier. Now, after a century of unchecked production and consumption, convenience has turned to crisis.

Beyond a mere material amenity, today you’ll find plastic where you least expect it, including the foods we eat, the water we drink and the environments in which we live. Once in the environment, it enters our food chain where, increasingly, microplastic particles are turning up in our stomachs, blood and lungs. Scientists are only beginning to study the potential health impacts.

Quick Guide Plastics and our throwaway society Show Why is plastic being demonised? Since the 1950s, 8.3bn tonnes of plastic has been produced. Plastic is seen as a versatile, indispensable product, but the environmental impact is becoming more stark. Plastic is now so pervasive that recycling systems cannot keep up and the leakage into the environment is such that by 2050 plastic in the ocean will outweigh fish. In 2017 scientists found plastic fibres in tap water, and plastic has been found in the stomachs of sea creatures in the deepest part of the ocean. Most plastic waste ends up in landfill sites or leaks into the natural environment, where it is causing huge damage to eco-systems on land and sea, creating near permanent contamination. According to academics in the United States, by 2015, of all the plastic waste generated since the 1950s, only 9% has been recycled, with 12% incinerated and 79% accumulated in landfill sites or the environment. Why are the supermarkets under fire? Producers of plastic include retailers, drinks companies and supermarkets. Supermarkets create more than half of the plastic waste in the household stream in the UK. But they refuse to reveal how much they put on to the streets and how much they pay towards recycling it. Supermarkets are under pressure to reduce their plastic packaging and campaigners argue they have the power to turn off the tap. Much of the packaging they sell to consumers is not recyclable: plastic film, black plastic trays, sleeves on drinks bottles and some coloured plastic. The Recycling Association and other experts believe supermarkets could do much more to make packaging 100% recyclable and reduce the use of plastic. Who pays to clean up the waste? The taxpayer, overwhelmingly. UK producers and retailers pay among the lowest towards recycling and dealing with their waste in Europe. In other countries, the “polluter” is forced to pay much more. In France, a sliding system of charges means those who put more non- recyclable material on the market pay more. What can shoppers do to help? Supermarkets are under pressure, not least from the prime minister, to create plastic-free aisles. A growing number of zero-waste shops are springing up and consumers are being encouraged to ask for products to be sold without plastic. Sandra Laville Photograph: ermingut/E+

That’s why we urgently need consumers, business and governments to step up with urgent, decisive action to halt this crisis of consumption of single-use, throwaway plastics. If we do that, we’ll also help fight climate change, create a new space for innovation and save some species in the process.



Since we began our love affair with this now ubiquitous material, we’ve produced roughly nine billion tonnes of plastic. About one-third of this has been single-use, providing a momentary convenience before being discarded. The straw in your average drink will be used for just a few minutes, but in the environment, it will last beyond our lifetimes. In your shopping trolley, a plastic bag will be used for less than an hour, but when they find their way to the ocean they kill more than 100,000 marine animals a year. Whales have been washed up in Norway and Spain choked with indigestible shopping bags – part of the 13m tonnes of plastic litter that end up in the ocean each year.

Unlike other environmental challenges, sceptics are hard-pressed to refute the reality of what we can see with our own eyes. Instead, the counter-narrative aims to undercut the urgency of efforts to beat plastic pollution – sometimes by painting the problem as a waste management issue, as if we had infinite landfill space.

But let there be no doubt: we are on edge of a plastic calamity. Current projections show that global plastic production will skyrocket in the next 10-15 years. This year alone, manufacturers will produce an estimated 360m tonnes. With a booming population driving demand, production is expected to reach 500m by 2025 and a staggering 619m tonnes by 2030. So the next time you see scenes of plastic choking a river or burying a beach, consider double that impact in just over 10 years.

Avoiding the worst of these outcomes requires more than awareness, it demands a movement. A wholesale rethinking of the way we produce, use and manage plastic. That’s why United Nations Environment is now focusing on a simple yet ambitious goal: beat plastic pollution.

First, citizens must act as both responsible consumers and informed citizens; demanding sustainable products and embracing sensible consumption habits into their own lives.

Individuals are increasingly exercising their power as consumers; turning down plastic straws and cutlery, cleaning beaches and coastlines, and rethinking their purchase habits. If this happens enough, retailers will get the message and look for alternatives.

The private sector must then innovate by adopting business models that reflect responsibility for the downstream impact of their products, and bring about scalable alternatives. Ultimately our plastic problem – much like the state of the global economy – is one of design, both in the plastics themselves and the linear economic model that makes throwing things away profitable. Public and private investment in the fields of green design and green chemistry need to be increased and manufacturers must be held to account for the life cycle of their products.

And finally, governments must lead by enacting strong policies that mandate responsible design, production and consumption of plastics. Kenya has banned throwaway plastic bags recently, and the result is that its stunning national parks are even more attractive and city drains are less blocked, helping reduce flooding. Rwanda has done it too, making Kigali one of the world’s cleanest cities and the kind of place people choose to live and do business.

Those who say there are more important environmental crises to tackle are mistaken. In today’s world, protecting our environment is not about choosing one issue above another. The deeply interconnected systems that make up the natural world defy such a narrow-minded approach. Beating plastic pollution will preserve precious ecosystems, mitigate climate change, protect biodiversity, and indeed human health. Confronting this crisis of convenience, is a fundamental battle that must be fought today as part of the broader struggle for a sustainable tomorrow.