More Plastic Than People in the World: 193 Countries Meet to Reach an Agreement to End Pollution

Between 1950 and 2015, according to data from the Heinrich Böll Foundation, 8.3 billion tons of plastic were produced. This figure already exceeds the number of people of the Earth.

Plastic remains one of the main problems for the survival of the ecosystem. This Tuesday, the Heinrich Böll Foundation released data that has impacted the entire world: between 1950 and 2015, 8.3 billion tons of plastic were produced, a figure that already exceeds the number of people in the world.

According to the data offered by this foundation, most of the plastic was produced for single-use products and packaging. Yet, if created for one use, those plastics can remain on Earth for hundreds of years. And there is no indication that this production is decreasing significantly.

In all these years, according to the German foundation, less than 10% of all plastic produced has been recycled, an alarming figure and worrying for environmentalists. They denounce the dumping of plastics into nature that damage and even cause the death of some animals.

Now, a few months before the end of 2022, 193 countries are working to reach a global agreement to put a stop to this plastic pollution.

They seek not to eliminate plastic completely, but to “remove” as much of it as possible from the environment and reuse in the hopes to not continue giving rise to this massive production.

“We depend a lot on plastics. We all have it in our homes, it’s a useful product, we need it. We are not necessarily against plastic, but against plastic in the environment” said Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme.

The negotiating committee with UN delegates, experts and NGOs meet this week in Uruguay to reach an agreement.