The total amount of plastic products that human beings have produced so far has been calculated and it is clear that the earth is a "plastic planet"

Plastic made from petroleum is indispensable to the life of modern people, but it is not easy to melt and recycle like glass or metal, many of which are disposed of by landfill . When a research team calculated the amount of plastic that human beings have produced up to now, the total amount is actually 8.3 billion tons, and it is said that the Earth is indeed in a condition called "plastic planet".

Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made | Science Advances
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/7/e1700782

Earth is becoming 'Planet Plastic' - BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40654915

A research team by industrial ecologist (industrial ecologist) and others belonging to the University of California, Santa Barbara, et al. Made the time when plastic was produced on a large scale into 1950 after the end of World War II and about 65 We calculated the amount of plastic produced by mankind on an annual basis, and we got a figure of "8.3 billion tons". This is an extremely large amount of substances that mankind has generated, and it is equivalent to 200,000 if it is a Tokyo Sky Tree with a total weight of "41,000 tons" made up of iron and concrete when converted to elephants To do.

Plastic is lightweight but has the feature of being durable and it is not an overstatement to say that it is used in every place around us. In particular, it is widely used in the industrial field because it has excellent characteristics as a container for transporting luggage and products, but 70% of it is destined to be used only for a very short period of time It is tracing. Dr. Roland Gayeur, the principal member of the research team, said, "Mankind is heading towards the" plastic planet "at a tremendous speed, and if you think that you do not want to live in such a star, especially on how to use materials like plastics We need to rethink ourselves. "

ByYohan Creemers

From the contents calculated by the research team, the following points are highlighted.

· The total amount of plastics produced so far is 8.3 billion tons
· Half of them were produced in the past 13 years
· 30% of the plastics produced in the past are still being used
· Of the discarded plastics, only about 9% were recycled
· Approximately 12% is incinerated, and 79% is actually landfilled
· The shorter service period is used as a packaging material and is discarded within one year
· On the other hand, the longest used plastic is plastic used in construction and machinery
· When the situation continues with the current trend, in 2050, 12 billion tons of discarded plastics will be generated
· Regional recycling rate by 2014: Europe 30%, China 25%, America 9%

Now it is made from biological resourcesBioplasticCan be broken down using microorganismsBiodegradable plasticAlthough it is being developed, inexpensive landfill processing is being carried out without taking the profit base because the cost is inevitably expensive at present. Also, the fact that recycling plastics is expensive is also costly, and the fact that it is cheaper to produce new plastics from petroleum also creates situations where the driving force to stop plastics production is not born.


Plastic waste produced on a daily basis that is difficult to recycle or disassemble continues to accumulate on the ground one after another, and it is considered that there is an amount on the planet that covers Argentina's land coverfully for the sake of calculation . The research team first said that he hopes to turn people's attention to the problem that mankind actually faces by clarifying its actual condition. Dr. Gayer said: "Our belief is" we can not manage things we do not weigh. "Although we intended to convey what the world should do by publishing only numbers, in fact It is likely to encourage the world to start discussing for coinciding and meeting. "