Plastic to outweigh fish in oceans by 2050, study warns

The study, which drew on multiple sources, proposed setting up a new system to slash the leaking of plastics into nature, especially the oceans, and to find alternatives to crude oil and natural gas as the raw material of plastic production.

At least 8 million tons of plastics find their way into the ocean every year — equal to one garbage truckload every minute, said the report, which included analysis by the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment.

"If no action is taken, this is expected to increase to two per minute by 2030 and four per minute by 2050," it said, with packaging estimated to account for the largest share of the pollution.

Available research estimates that there are more than 150 million tons of plastics in the ocean today.

"In a business-as-usual scenario, the ocean is expected to contain 1 ton of plastic for every 3 tons of fish by 2025, and by 2050, more plastics than fish," it said.

"This report demonstrates the importance of triggering a revolution in the plastics industrial ecosystem and is a first step to showing how to transform the way plastics move through our economy," said Dominic Waughray of the World Economic Forum, which jointly released the report and is the host of the annual talks in Davos.

"To move from insight to large-scale action, it is clear that no one actor can work on this alone. The public [and] private sector and civil society all need to mobilize to capture the opportunity of the new circular plastics economy," he said.

A sweeping change in the use of plastic packaging would require cooperation worldwide among consumer goods companies, plastic packaging producers, businesses involved in collection, cities, policymakers and other organizations, said the report. It proposed creating an independent coordinating body for the initiative.

"Plastics are the workhorse material of the modern economy, with unbeaten properties. However, they are also the ultimate single-use material," said Martin Stuchtey of the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment. "Growing volumes of end-of-use plastics are generating costs and destroying value to the industry." 

Reusable plastics could become a valuable commodity in a "circular economy" that relied on recycling, Stuchtey said. "Our research confirms that applying those circular principles could spark a major wave of innovation, with benefits for the entire supply chain." 

Al Jazeera and Agence France-Presse