Less than 10% of the world’s plastic is currently recycled, for a production that has doubled since the year 2000 and currently peaks at 367 million tonnes.
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An excess already reached. The huge amounts of plastics and chemicals produced by mankind are beyond the “planetary boundaries”, according to a study by Stockholm Resilience Centre, Tuesday 15 February. This center carries out reference work on “planetary limits”, in nine fields (climate change, use of fresh water, acidification of the oceans, etc.).
According to the authors of the study, while all efforts to prevent these materials from ending up in the environment are worth taking, the scale of the problem prompts consideration of more radical solutions, such as a maximum production ceiling. Especially since recycling is showing mediocre results, with less than 10% of the world’s plastic recycled, for a production that has doubled since the year 2000 and currently peaks at 367 million tonnes.
With a cocktail of 350,000 synthetic products invented by humans and considerable volumes ending up in the atmosphere or directly or indirectly in the environment, “the effects we are beginning to observe are large enough to affect critical functions of planet Earth and its ecosystems,” insists Bethanie Carney Almroth, co-author of the study.
The authors also wonder about the impact of “new entities”, ie all chemicals created by man (plastics, antibiotics, pesticides, etc.) as well as metals in their unnatural concentration. “We are only beginning to understand the long-term and massive effects of these exposures”says the researcher.
It warns that efforts at the level of initial production or waste management will not make it possible to ignore a drop in the volumes manufactured. “It seems obvious but it has only recently become true: the more you produce, the more you reject”she pleads.