Announcements
Announcements
Minderoo Foundation’s Plastic Waste Makers Index 2023 shows the planet’s plastic pollution problem is worsening, and new estimates of lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions from single-use plastics demonstrate how single-use plastics producers also contribute to the climate crisis.
Plastic washed up on tropical island in the Maldives. Photo: Peter Cade / Getty Images.
The report shows that despite rising consumer awareness, corporate attention, and regulation, there is more single-use plastic waste than ever before – an additional 6 million metric tons generated in 2021 compared to 2019 – still almost entirely made from fossil fuels.
Toby Gardner, Trase Director and SEI Senior Research Fellow, contributed to the report as part of the Steering Committee.
This is a much needed, if devastating report. It demonstrates more clearly than ever how much single-use plastics blight our environment, and are themselves a key driver of climate change. And also that recycling is far, far behind where it needs to be. Decisive government action is needed both to drive down consumption and to scale-up recycling through regulation.
Toby Gardner, Senior Research Fellow at SEI and report contributor
The report’s key findings reveal:
We can eliminate plastic pollution within a decade, but to do so we must abandon the idea that industry can transform of its own accord.
Dr Andrew Forrest AO, Chairman and Co-Founder, Minderoo Foundation
A media briefing was held at the Economist’s Asia Sustainability Week in Singapore, including a virtual panel discussion to launch the report and present the key findings. Authors and contributors of the report include:
Contributors
The Plastic Waste Makers Index is a study by Minderoo Foundation which identifies the source of global single-use plastic waste and tracks the repercussions of the plastics industry. Is has been developed with partners including Wood Mackenzie, and experts from the London School of Economics and the Stockholm Environment Institute, among others. SEI Senior Research Fellow Toby Gardner contributed to the report, and the Trase initiative contributed to the development of datasets and methods used in the report.
In 2021 it revealed, for the first time, the 20 petrochemical companies that generate more than half the world’s single-use plastic waste. In the 2023 edition, the Index includes new estimates of cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions from single-use plastics, demonstrating how single-use plastics producers also contribute to the climate crisis.
Tool / Trase enables governments, companies and others to address the environmental impacts of supply chains.
Feature / Analysis shows that a small handful of companies and banks are behind the production of most single-use plastics. SEI's Toby Gardner contributed to the report.
Media coverage / CNBC Correspondent Sam Meredith interviews SEI's Toby Gardner on the results of The Plastic Waste Makers Index published by The Minderoo Foundation.
Feature / Marine plastic pollution from excessive production and poor land management is one of the most critical environmental pollution issues of our time.
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