A million bottles a minute: world's plastic binge 'as dangerous as climate change'

[Judi Lynn]

Exclusive: Annual consumption of plastic bottles is set to top half a trillion by 2021, far outstripping recycling efforts and jeopardising oceans, coastlines and other environments

Sandra Laville and Matthew Taylor
Wednesday 28 June 2017 08.50 EDT

A million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute and the number will jump another 20% by 2021, creating an environmental crisis some campaigners predict will be as serious as climate change.

New figures obtained by the Guardian reveal the surge in usage of plastic bottles, more than half a trillion of which will be sold annually by the end of the decade.

The demand, equivalent to about 20,000 bottles being bought every second, is driven by an apparently insatiable desire for bottled water and the spread of a western, urbanised “on the go” culture to China and the Asia Pacific region.

More than 480bn plastic drinking bottles were sold in 2016 across the world, up from about 300bn a decade ago. If placed end to end, they would extend more than halfway to the sun. By 2021 this will increase to 583.3bn, according to the most up-to-date estimates from Euromonitor International’s global packaging trends report.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/28/a-million-a-minute-worlds-plastic-bottle-binge-as-dangerous-as-climate-change

[BootinUp]

1. I'll be dead soon. Nt

[Lordquinton]

2. The two are linked

It's another issue to deal with to solve climate change.

[cstanleytech]

3. I wish they would go back to glass as while it can be still tossed into a river

I dont think it has as negative an impact as plastics.

[BadgerKid]

4. So much plastic wrapping/packaging, too.

I figure there's multiple factors contributing to this.

[Squinch]

5. I'm trying to limit my use of plastic. Carry a Starbucks steel thermos for coffee and

water and a net grocery bag with me everywhere. The bag can be bunched up and kept in even a very small purse so you always have it. I buy vegetables raw and not processed in the clamshells. I also have a seltzer water addiction so I bought a $20 seltzer water maker and those little CO2 pellets.

Even with all that, I am stunned at the amount of plastic I throw away on a given day. It's insane. I have mental images of us all trying to wade through knee deep plastic to get around in a few years.

[tblue37]

6. K&R for visibility. nt