The world is generating a staggering amount of plastic, and an alarming quantity is finding its way into the planet's ecosystem. Scientists are working on ways to counter that invasion, but the ultimate solution lies in slowing the use of plastics so there is less to pollute the environment. This must be a multipronged approach, with consumers, producers and governments all changing behavior. Japan has a crucial role to play in this effort.
While they have become ubiquitous in daily life, plastics have a short history. The first synthetic polymer — what we commonly call plastic — was made in 1907, but large-scale production began after World War II, when use of such materials expanded beyond the military. It is estimated that the world has produced 9.1 billion tons of plastic since 1950. Production in 2015 was 448 million tons — twice the amount produced in 1998 — and is projected to exceed 500 million metric tons by 2050. One million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute, and the number is projected to grow another 20 percent by 2021.
Since it takes plastic more than 400 years to degrade, dealing with this mounting — and seemingly permanent — problem is ever more important. There are three ways to deal with plastic: recycling, incineration or dumping in the environment (either in landfills or haphazardly, when it becomes "pollution"). While the precise numbers are hard to come by, it is estimated that only about 14 percent of plastics are collected and recycled, 9 percent are incinerated and the remainder, despite growing attention to the need for proper disposal of plastics — sometimes called "sustainable use" — ends up in the environment; 5 to 14 million tons of plastic is dumped into the oceans annually. If current trends continue, 12 billion metric tons of plastic waste will be in landfills or in the natural environment by 2050. One troubling prediction is that by 2050, there will be more plastic in the world's waters than fish.