#US and China leading in single-use plastic waste generation

Fossil fuel companies based in the US are driving the world’s plastic pollution crisis, according to a damning new report on the single-use plastics industry.

Top research institutions contributed to the study assembled by Australian watchdog group Minderoo Foundation, which puts blame on fossil-fuel companies such as ExxonMobil and Dow, as well as China’s Sinopec, for contributing 16% of the world’s single-use plastic waste — nearly all of which ends up in the air, earth or water.

At least one-third of all plastic waste globally — 130 million tons in 2019 — are considered single-use, meant to be used once and discarded immediately, such as grocery bags, bottles and to-go utensils.

Globally, the US ranked No. 2 in single-use plastic waste generation with over 17.1 million tons created in 2019, but ninth in single-use plastic waste per capita with 52 kilograms (114.6 pounds) annually. Compare that to China, which led the world in waste generation with over 25.3 million tons, but accounted for only about one-third of the US’s per capita rates at only 18 kilograms (39.6 pounds) per year, despite being home to about 1.07 billion more residents.

In third place, India, the world’s second-most populated country, contributed just a fraction of plastic waste compared to China and the US: 5.6 million tons of single-use plastic waste generated in 2019 and only 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds) per capita.

While creating much less single-use plastic waste overall, wealthy nations who ranked above the US in per capita single-use plastic waste included Singapore (first), Australia (second), the Netherlands (third), Belgium (fourth), Hong Kong (fifth), Israel (sixth), Oman (seventh) and Switzerland (eighth).

According to the annual “No Plastic Waste” report, it’s often smaller companies — restaurants, grocers or salons, for example — who bear the brunt of reform, as with recent state- and local-level legislation to ban certain single-use plastics in California, New York and elsewhere. Nevertheless, 98% of all single-use plastics are produced thanks to polymers created by fossil-fuel companies, who turn a higher profit on manufacturing “virgin” materials rather than developing “circular” systems based on recycling, reuse and alternative, sustainable resources.

At the BBC’s request, ExxonMobil has issued a statement in response to the “No Plastic Waste” report, claiming they are “taking action to address plastic waste by increasing plastic recyclability, supporting improvements in plastic waste recovery … and minimizing plastic pellet loss from our operations.”

They added, “We are also working on advanced recycling solutions that create and capture value from plastic waste with opportunities for lower overall greenhouse gas emissions over the full life cycle of the plastic.”

There’s a lot at stake for the world’s richest investors, the new report revealed. Just 20 of the world’s most powerful investment firms, namely US-based groups such as Vanguard Group, BlackRock and Capital Group, possess more than $300 billion of shares in polymer-producing parent companies, which reap an estimated $10 billion on single-use plastics alone.

In the absence of meaningful political action and government support, the world stands to grow its single-use polymer market by 30%, according to “No Plastic Waste.” Its report notes that 30% of the sector by value is state-owned, in Saudi Arabia, China and the United Arab Emirates, among others.

“It is critically important petrochemical companies move towards circular economy-based alternatives,” said Professor Sam Fankhauser, economist at the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics, who contributed to the report. In a statement to the BBC, he continued, “The benefits on offer are transformative and hugely beneficial, not only for our environment and ecosystems but also the communities living with the realities of plastic pollution.”