Literally you will find more plastic than marine animals in terms of weight in the world’s oceans by 2050, the World Economic Forum warned recently.
Plastic has become one of the world’s most popular materials, combining amazing functionality and very low production costs. Its use has increased 20-fold in the past 50 years and is expected to double again in the next 20 years.
Almost everybody in the world comes into contact with it — over a quarter of all plastic is used for packaging, the most popular use of the material.
But only 14% of plastic packaging is collected for recycling.
So how do we fix this? People all over the world are gathering to clean up beaches, while new technologies to remove plastics from the ocean are currently being developed. As the demand for plastics is set to double in the next two decades, we need to look at the root cause not just the symptoms, if we really want to solve the problem. To free our ocean from plastics, we have to fundamentally rethink the way we make, use and reuse plastics, so that they do not become waste in the first place.
To create a circular economy for plastics – we need innovations in the form of better materials, clever product designs, and new, circular business models.
The Circular Materials economy may make the ways to make all plastic packaging recyclable or composted.