A new study finds that every year people create 57 million tons of plastic pollution. The material winds up everywhere from the deepest oceans to the highest peak of Mount Everest to inside people's body.

The world creates 57 million tons of plastic pollution every year and spreads it from the deepest oceans to the highest mountaintop to the inside of people’s bodies, according to a new study that also said more than two-thirds of it comes from the Global South.

It’s enough pollution each year — about 52 million metric tons — to fill New York City’s Central Park with plastic waste as high as the Empire State Building, according to researchers at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. They examined waste produced on the local level at more than 50,000 cities and towns across the world for a study in Wednesday’s journal Nature.

The study examined plastic that goes into the open environment, not plastic that goes into landfills or is properly burned. For 15% of the world’s population, government fails to collect and dispose of waste, the study’s authors said — a big reason Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa produce the most plastic waste. That includes 255 million people in India, the study said.

  • Dkarma@lemmy.worldEnglish
    17·
    3 months ago

    You vote for the only options u have. Everyone is making this shit. No one is making bio plastics. You don’t have the option to not buy a lot of the plastics you consume.

    • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      8·
      3 months ago

      Yup. A while back I remember reading that Germany had a system in place that rated manufacturers’ packaging based on recycling - the more unrecyclable/mixed media the packaging was, the higher the import fees/sale taxes…

      Dunno if it’s still like that, but it seems the most logical way to place the costs of plastic pollution where it belongs … on the manufacturers.

    • copd@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      Brash statement.

      Some countries/areas offer options to avoid buying the vast majority of plastics. The problem is that its almost always more expensive to purchase the plastic free alternative.

      When money is involved its pretty obvious what happens and what people pick

    • Mr_Blott@feddit.ukEnglish
      49·
      3 months ago

      You have the option NOT to use anything I mentioned, but people do because of the “One snowflake never felt responsible for an avalanche” effect

      • copd@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21·
        2 months ago

        The downvotes on your comments are only proving your point. People want others to reform but not themselves

        The only valid excuse for not changing your lifestyle is if you cant afford to.