In this day and age, plastics occupy an important position by virtue of their unique characteristics, and it can even be said that we are in the "age of plastics". The amount of municipal solid plastic waste produced by humans each year is equivalent to the weight of about 523 trillion plastic straws, which, when connected in the first place, could circle the Earth 2.8 million times in length.
The life cycle of plastic does not end when plastic is discarded; it may be around for thousands of years. World plastic production has nearly doubled in the last 20 years and is estimated to more than triple its current level by 2050. The ensuing plastic pollution has also caused numerous harmful effects on humans and has become a major global problem.
A report released by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), "Analysis of the Social, Environmental and Economic Costs of Plastics," shows that the negative impacts of plastics over their life cycle impose significant costs on governments and society, costs that are much greater than the market price of plastics. Some negative impacts, such as plastic waste management, incur direct economic costs; others translate into indirect costs by endangering the environment and human health and increasing social and government expenditures. For example, marine pollution from plastics produced in 2019 throughout their life cycle will cause damage to marine ecosystems, reduce services provided by marine ecosystems, and generate costs of $3.1 trillion (+/- $1 trillion). By 2040, plastic production is expected to double and plastic will pollute the oceans three times as much as it does today. By then, the share of plastics in the global carbon budget will have risen to 20 percent, accelerating the global climate crisis.
Overall, the costs of plastics that are not yet reflected in market prices include: ● costs associated with greenhouse gas emissions; ● health costs; ● waste management costs; and ● costs associated with improper disposal.
Additional problems with plastics throughout their life cycle include.
1. Plastics release large amounts of greenhouse gases at every stage of their life cycle
Studies show that 91 percent of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions from plastics come from the manufacturing process, meaning that plastics have a significant cost to society before they even become waste. The majority of greenhouse gas emissions occur before plastics are used and during the refining and production of raw materials.
Waste management also contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, whether incineration or landfill, either directly or indirectly. According to previous studies estimating cycle emissions, plastics emit lower amounts of greenhouse gases at the end of their life cycle than at other stages, mainly from incineration. However, either landfilling or incineration will lead to an increased demand for virgin plastics, which will bring further greenhouse gas emissions. Improper disposal of plastic waste can lead to significant greenhouse gas emissions, as can the illegal disposal of plastics in the environment, which continues to release greenhouse gases as they degrade.
2. Some developing countries are bearing a disproportionate share of the costs of waste management.
Although the international community has taken action to limit the export of plastic waste, there are still some high-income countries that are exporting their plastic waste to low-income countries.
In 2019, the U.S. exported a total of 83,000 tons of plastic waste to Vietnam, an amount equal to the plastic waste production of 300,000 U.S. households in one year. However, the vast majority of the waste is not recycled, but spills directly into the environment, posing a risk to the environment and the health of the population in the countries receiving the waste plastics.
On the other hand, the lack of processing capacity in the formal recycling system provides opportunities for illegal waste disposal. In emerging Asian importing countries, illegal recyclers profit from avoiding the cost of waste disposal permits and reducing costs by not using environmentally friendly disposal methods.
3. Marine plastic pollution can reduce the ocean's ability to sequester carbon and exacerbate the climate crisis.
The ocean is a powerful carbon sink and plays an important role in removing carbon dioxide from the air. It is estimated that the ocean absorbs 25% of carbon dioxide emissions. A series of biological processes occur in the ocean that capture carbon from the surface and send it to the sea floor, where it is removed from the air.
However, plastics can limit the ocean's carbon sink function. The results of both laboratory and field tests indicate that zooplankton are ingesting large amounts of microplastics. Laboratory tests have also shown that ingestion of microplastics can have an effect on the feeding rate of zooplankton. Exposure to microplastics has also been shown to adversely affect zooplankton growth and reproduction, and these effects can significantly reduce the ocean's ability to sequester carbon.
4. Plastics also have other negative impacts during their production, consumption and disposal that are not yet fully understood.
The currently quantifiable cost of plastics over their life cycle is enormous, yet more alarmingly, it is only the tip of the iceberg. Lack of data, insufficient research, and deficiencies in assessment methods have not yet fully quantified the negative impacts of plastics. It is fair to say that there are many known unknowns regarding the life-cycle costs of plastics. The production, incineration, and open burning of plastics can pose a significant threat to human health. There is growing evidence that humans are being exposed to microplastics, although it is still unknown whether ingesting microplastics will have a negative impact on human health. The World Health Organization (WHO) currently says that microplastic particles cannot yet be considered a threat to human health due to a lack of sufficient evidence.
In order to solve the plastic crisis, countries around the world have also taken the necessary action, but the current measures have not reached a scale that can bring about systemic change, and the relevant regulatory measures are of different standards, scattered and disorganized, failing to reach the root causes of the plastic pollution problem.
A number of key organizations have responded to the crisis by proposing approaches to develop a circular economy for plastics, attempting to contain plastics in a closed economic loop and prevent them from leaking into the environment. This approach is effective in reducing the negative impacts of plastic, including reducing the amount of plastic flowing into the ocean by 80 percent each year and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent. However, this approach to overhauling the entire system requires strong financial support and technical backing, which has prevented the government from taking further action.
At the same time, the feedback loop on the adverse effects of plastics is missing because the market price of plastics does not fully reflect the life-cycle costs of plastics. The result is that society as a whole lacks sufficient motivation to drive the systemic changes needed to address the current state of plastic pollution. In addition, the lack of data has limited the government's ability to recognize and make decisions about the plastics crisis. In responding to plastic pollution, government responses do not cover the entire life cycle of plastics, but rather target only one stage of the life cycle or a narrow scope of the problem, such as limiting the use of single-use plastic bags.
WWF calls for a truly global action to effectively address the plastics crisis, given the transboundary nature of the problem. Now is a critical time for governments to take action and for them to ensure that all players in the plastics system are held accountable for the costs of plastics generation.
A report by the Australian-based Mindray Foundation, The Cost of Plastic Pollution: Social Costs and Corporate Liabilities, provides the first quantitative estimates of the social costs and corporate liabilities from all forms of plastic-related pollution, and the corporate liabilities from plastic-related pollution are significant and could exceed $20 billion from 2022-2030; beyond 2030, corporate liability exposure could increase by an order of magnitude and require immediate attention. The report also suggests that manufacturers of chemical additives used in plastics, manufacturers of plastic polymers, many of which have clear harmful links to human health, and plastic products that break down into microplastics and nanoplastic particles, pose serious risks to public health and the environment, are likely to face prosecution. According to Dr. Andrew Forrest AO, president of the Minderoo Foundation, "This report builds on the already compelling evidence that plastic pollution is causing unacceptable damage to our health and the health of our children."
