Plastic Packaging Still an Afterthought for Most

The UN Environmental Program released their latest report on plastic pollution today, titled ‘Turning off the Tap: How the world can end plastic pollution and create a circular economy.’ It reveals that if business carries on as usual, the world can expect to generate 408MMt of waste by 2040. But if we successfully adapt our systems, including getting better at reusing plastics and improving our processes for sorting recycling, then that total could be brought down to 216MMt.

While multiple surveys show that there is overwhelming global support for measures to be brought in to ban single-use plastics, the following chart shows that this is not necessarily trickling down into consumers' shopping behaviors. According to a survey carried out by Statista Consumer Insights between February and March 2021, where a third of urban Indians made decisions based on whether packaging is recyclable, 28 percent of urban Chinese shoppers did the same, while in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom, the share of respondents was closer to just one in five.

The survey shows that some consumers do try to minimize their plastic waste through other means though. For example, in all five polled countries, a higher share of respondents said that they would take their own shopping bag with them when they go shopping. This was especially high in the United Kingdom (67 percent) and Germany (62 percent), while it was slightly less common among respondents in China (50 percent) and India (52 percent), and gained less traction still in the United States (33 percent).

In March of last year, 193 countries agreed to draw up a global agreement by the end of 2024 to put an end to plastic pollution. The second round of intergovernmental negotiations will run from May 29 - June 2 in Paris.