How much plastic has the world produced?
Data Scavenger Hunt
Find answers to the following questions using the visual above:
Ton and tonne are both units of measurement. In the United States, a ton is 2,000 pounds. Outside the United States, a ton can refer to a metric ton, which is 1,000 kilograms, or 2,204.6 pounds. A tonne is another word for metric ton. a tonne is a little big bigger than a ton. As of 2019 what was the total cumulative global plastic production?
At the time of your birth, what was the cumulative global plastic production?
About how much plastic has been produced during your lifetime?
What is the big story the data from the chart above tells?
The first synthetic plastic — Bakelite — was produced in 1907, marking the beginning of the global plastics industry. In 1950s the world produced only 2 million tonnes per year. Since then, annual production has increased nearly 230-fold, reaching 460 million tonnes in 2019. Based on our current trajectory, predict how much cumulative plastic the world will have produced by 2030.
Big Brain Questions
Answer these questions by yourself using your brain and any links below:
Considering the amount of plastic we produce (above) and the amount of plastic we recycle (below*) what happens to the rest of the plastic?
The world had now produced over 10 billion tonnes of plastic — more than one tonne of plastic for every person alive today. Do you think you have used a tonne of plastic in your lifetime?
The most well-known example of large plastic accumulations in surface waters is the so-called ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ (GPGP) (see below*) As of a 2018 study, the vast majority of GPGP material is plastics and the size of the GPGP spanned 1.6 million km2. This is just over three times the area of Spain, and slightly larger in area to Alaska. The GPGP comprised 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic, with a mass of 79,000 tonnes (approximately 29 percent of the 269,000 tonnes in the world’s surface oceans). Why do you think there is so much plastic in the ocean?
A plastic pollution patch the size of Alaska is too big a problem for one country alone to solve. What would be the best political way to solve a problem like the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ (GPGP)?
Given the current amount of plastic that’s been produced, predict the amount of plastic that will have been produced by 2030. The amount of plastic produced actually decreased during the global financial crisis of 2008— a similar dent is seen across several metrics of resource production and consumption, including energy. Explain whether another global financial crisis would be good for the environment.
Write and Discuss
Take ten minutes to write about the question at the top of the page and then discuss with your classmates.
Act on your Learning
What could you individually do to reduce plastic use and what could your country do to reduce plastic use? Crowdsource a list of both individual and collective solutions to plastic overuse along with an action step to solve each.
Get Creative
An environmental group recently made a fake press release saying that Mattel, the toy corporation that has produced over 1 billion Barbie Dolls, would phase out plastic use in its dolls and make all future Barbie Doll out of mushrooms and bamboo. That’s not true. Design the most ridiculous Barbie Doll you can imagine.
Learn More
Check out interactive charts and graphs from Our World in Data, this great NPR story about plastic, and this new line of Mattel EcoWarrier Barbies!
