The world produces 57 million tons of plastic waste every year

The world produces 57 million tons of plastic waste each year and spreads it from the deepest oceans to the tops of mountains to the human body, according to a new study, according to which two-thirds of the waste comes from developing countries.

There is so much trash that Central Park and the Empire State Building in New York could be filled with plastic waste, according to researchers at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.

They examined locally produced waste in more than 50,000 cities and towns around the world for a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

The study examined plastic that goes into the open environment, non-plastic waste that goes to landfills, or is incinerated properly.

For 15 percent of the world's population, governments fail to collect and dispose of waste, the study authors said, a major reason why Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa produce the most plastic waste. This includes a population of 255 million people in India, the study says.

The city of Lagos in Nigeria produced more plastic waste than any other city, according to study author Costas Velis, a professor at the University of Leeds.

Other cities with the most plastic pollution are New Delhi, in India, Luanda in Angola, Karachi in Pakistan and Cairo in Egypt.

India is the world's largest producer of plastic waste, 10.2 million tons per year, more than double the countries behind it, Nigeria and Indonesia.

China, often criticized for pollution, ranks fourth but is making tremendous strides in reducing waste, Mr. Velis said.

Other countries that cause major plastic pollution are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia and Brazil. These eight countries are responsible for more than half of the globe's plastic pollution, according to the study.

According to the study, the United States ranks 90th for plastic pollution with more than 52,500 tons and the United Kingdom ranks 135th with nearly 5,100 tons.

The study used artificial intelligence to focus on plastic waste that was improperly incinerated, about 57 percent of the waste, or simply landfilled. In both cases, it is extremely small microplastics that turn the problem of water pollution and damage to underwater life into a threat to human health, Mr. Velis said.

Several studies this year have shown how widespread microplastics are in drinking water and in human tissues, such as hearts, brains and testicles. Doctors and scientists are still unsure what this means in terms of risk to human health.

"The big time bomb of microplastics are those mainly in the southern part of the globe," said Mr. Velis. "We already have a big proliferation problem. They are found in the most remote places ... the peaks of Everest, in the Mariana Channel in the depths of the ocean, in the air, in what we eat and what we drink."

He called it "everyone's problem" and one that will haunt future generations.

"We should not put the blame, any responsibility, on the southern part of the globe", said Mr. Velis. "And we should not glorify ourselves in any way for what we do in the northern part of the globe."

It is only a lack of resources and the ability of governments to provide the necessary services to citizens, emphasized Mr. Velis.

Outside experts worry that the study's focus on pollution, rather than overall production, distracts attention from the plastics industry. The production of plastic releases large amounts of polluting gas that contributes to climate change.

"They've defined plastic pollution much more narrowly, as just macroplastics that are left in the environment after the consumer, and that risks taking the focus off the top of the pollution chain, and saying that all we have to do now is to manage waste better," said Neil Tangri, director of science and policy at GAIA, a global network of activist organizations working on zero waste and environmental justice initiatives. "It's necessary, but it's not the whole story." .

Theresa Karlsson, scientific and technical adviser to the International Pollutant Elimination Network, another coalition of environmental, health and waste activist organizations, called the volume of pollution identified by the study "alarming" and said it shows that the amount of plastic produced today is "unmanageable".

But she said the study did not show the importance of the global trade in plastic waste, which has forced rich countries to send it to poor countries. The study says the trade in plastic waste is shrinking, with China banning imports of the waste. But Ms Karlsson said the overall waste trade was actually growing and there was likely to be an increase in plastics as well. She cited EU waste exports which have increased from 110,000 tonnes in 2004 to 1.4 million tonnes in 2021.

Mr. Velis said that the amount of plastic waste traded is small. Kara Lavender Law, a professor of oceanography at the Marine Education Association who was not involved in the study, agreed, based on trends in plastic waste in the United States. She said this was still one of the most comprehensive studies on plastic waste.

Officials in the plastics industry praised the study.

"This study highlights that uncollected and unmanaged plastic waste is the largest contributor to plastic pollution and that prioritizing good waste management is vital to ending plastic pollution," Chris Jahn said in a statement. , by the International Council of Chemical Societies.

The United Nations predicts that plastic production is likely to increase from about 440 million tons per year to over 1,200 million tons and that "our planet is drowning in plastic."/VOA