Horrifying statistics on the plastic waste crisis

Billions of tons of plastic waste are causing serious environmental pollution.

Plastic products have a negative impact on marine life. Photo: Telegraph.

There are about 6.3 billion tons of plastic waste on Earth.

Plastics have been used for 60-70 years and have played a huge role in modern life, influencing the way we design clothes, cook, work in engineering and design products, according to the Telegraph. As a result, the rate of plastic production has increased, creating billions of tons of plastic on Earth.

Experts estimate that humans have produced about 8.3 billion tons of plastic to date. Of that, 6.3 billion tons have become waste, 79% of which ends up in landfills or in the natural environment.

By 2050, plastic will surpass fish in mass.

David Attenborough warned on his Blue Planet nature documentary that the oceans are under unprecedented threat. The amount of plastic in the sea is estimated at 150 million tonnes, roughly one-fifth the mass of fish. At the current rate of plastic production and consumption, plastic will outweigh fish by 2050.

The mass of plastic will be greater than the mass of fish by 2050. Photo: Telegraph.

Diapers can last up to 450 years

One of the reasons plastics are so popular is because they are so durable. This means that the majority of plastic produced today still exists in some form, negatively affecting the environment.

A nappy can last around 450 years, more than five times the average lifespan of a British person. Fishing line is even more durable, taking up to 600 years to decompose.

There are more than 200 plastic products on every 100 metres of UK coastline.

In September, nearly 7,000 people took part in a campaign to clean up 255,209 pieces of litter from 339 beaches in the UK. The results showed that there were an average of 718 pieces of litter for every 100m of coastline that participants cleaned, up 10% from last year.

Small pieces of plastic were the most common, with 225 pieces found per 100 square metres. Of that, food and drink waste, which is often used only once and then thrown away, accounted for at least 20 per cent.

There are 20,000 plastic bottles sold every second.

Water bottles are a major contributor to plastic pollution. In 2016, around 480 billion plastic bottles were sold worldwide. The UK government is considering measures to curb consumption, including free water refills and a bottle return policy.

According to VNE