More than 6 million tons of plastic waste are floating in rivers, lakes and oceans.

The volume of plastic waste globally has doubled in 20 years, from 156 million tons in 2000 to 353 million tons in 2019 and is expected to nearly triple to more than 1 billion tons by 2060.

Plastic pollution is one of the world's most pressing issues today, requiring strong cooperation and commitment from the global community. Despite calls from scientists and environmental activists, the situation has not improved and is even getting worse.

Plastic bags drift into Botnia Bay near Pietarsaari in late spring as the sea ice melts, May 3, 2023. (Photo: AFP/VNA).

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), global production of synthetic polymers, the materials that make up bulk plastics, has increased 230-fold since the 1950s.

In particular, during the period 2000-2019, total synthetic polymer production doubled to 460 million tons, mainly concentrated in the US, the Middle East and China.

If left unchecked, that figure will nearly triple to 1.2 billion tonnes by 2060, according to the OECD.

Along with the sharp increase in plastic production, the volume of plastic waste globally has also doubled in 20 years , from 156 million tons in 2000 to 353 million tons in 2019 and is expected to nearly triple to more than 1 billion tons by 2060.

What is worrying is how this huge amount of plastic waste is handled, according to the OECD, only 9% of the world's plastic waste is recycled; 19% is incinerated in a controlled manner; and nearly 50% is sent to controlled landfills.

The remaining 22% is dumped in illegal landfills, burned in the open or released into the environment, posing a major risk to human health. In 2019, about 22 million tonnes of plastic were released into the environment, of which 6 million tonnes ended up in rivers, lakes and oceans.

By 2060, the OECD predicts that the amount of waste in the environment will double to 44 million tons, mainly large plastics, but there are no accurate statistics on the status of plastic 'waste' particles in the bodies of living things and humans.

Divers collect trash on the seabed at Naxos Island, Greece. (Photo: AFP/VNA).

Plastic also has a significant carbon footprint , generating about 1.8 billion tons of greenhouse gases in 2019, equivalent to 3.4% of total global emissions.

About 90% of these emissions come from the production and processing of plastics, which are derived from crude oil and natural gas.

The report was released less than a month before the final round of talks of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) in Busan, South Korea, to reach a global agreement to tackle plastic pollution.

Observers say progress on the deal has been slow and at times blocked. The biggest disagreement is that a group of countries, especially oil-producing nations, believe the pact should focus on downstream measures, mainly waste management.

Meanwhile, more ambitious countries including the European Union and many Asian and African countries want rules to limit the production of new plastics, address waste management and recycling, and emissions from the production of new plastics.

In a separate effort to tackle plastic pollution, entrepreneurs and researchers from across the Indo-Pacific region gathered on October 29 at a Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, to discuss solutions to transform the production, use and recycling of plastics.

Indonesian startup Plustik will showcase the recycling method it is working on here, converting low-value plastic waste mined from landfills into commercial products including paving blocks and wood flooring.

The next two workshops in the CSIRO event series are scheduled to take place in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) on 1 November and Bangkok (Thailand) on 7 November.