ARTICLE

https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-018-0212-7 OPEN

Future scenarios of global plastic waste generation

and disposal
Laurent Lebreton1,2 & Anthony Andrady3

ABSTRACT The accumulation of mismanaged plastic waste (MPW) in the environment is

a global growing concern. Knowing with precision where litter is generated is important to
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target priority areas for the implementation of mitigation policies. In this study, using country-
level data on waste management combined with high-resolution distributions and long-term
projections of population and the gross domestic product (GDP), we present projections of
global MPW generation at ~1 km resolution from now to 2060. We estimated between 60
and 99 million metric tonnes (Mt) of MPW were produced globally in 2015. In a business-as-
usual scenario, this figure could triple to 155–265 Mt y−1 by 2060. The future MPW load will
continue to be disproportionately high in African and Asian continents even in the future
years. However, we show that this growth in plastic waste can be reduced if developing
economies significantly invest in waste management infrastructures as their GDP grows in
the future and if efforts are made internationally to reduce the fraction of plastic in municipal
solid waste. Using our projections, we also demonstrate that the majority of MPW (91%) are
transported via watersheds larger than 100 km2 suggesting that rivers are major pathways for
plastic litter to the ocean.

1 The Ocean Cleanup Foundation, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. 2 The Modelling House, Raglan, New Zealand. 3 North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC,

USA. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to L.L. (email: [email protected])

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C
Introduction
ommercial production of plastics that started around costs, lack of requisite infrastructure and poor demand by pro-
1950’s has enjoyed exceptional growth, to reach the pre- cessors for recycled plastic granulate.
sent global annual production of 330 million metric Adding to risks of local flooding by clogging drains and
tonnes (Mt) for 2016 (Plastics Europe, 2017). Including the resin degradation of air quality from open dumps, a serious concern is
used in spinning textile fibres (Lenzing Group, 2016), this figure where mismanaged waste located near inland waterways or in
is closer to 393 Mt, a value that interestingly matches the global coastal regions serves as an input of plastics into rivers and the
human biomass. At the present rate of growth, plastics produc- oceans. Microplastics or small fragments (<5 mm in size), mostly
tion is estimated to double within the next 20 years. This derived by surface weathering degradation of plastic debris
impressive success of plastics is unparalleled by any competing (Andrady, 2017), now ubiquitous in soil (Rillig, 2012), rivers and
materials used in packaging or construction, the two major lakes (Lebreton et al., 2017) as well as in the oceans (Barnes et al.,
applications areas of plastics. Plastics production is energy 2009). Virgin pellets and some manufactured products such as
intensive with resins having an embodied energy of 62–108 MJ kg−1 microbeads, also find their way into oceans (Mason et al., 2016).
(inclusive of feedstock energy) much higher than for paper, wood, The smaller the dimension of the microplastic, the wider will be
glass or metals (except for Aluminium) (Hammond and Jones, the range of marine organisms that are able to ingest or otherwise
2008). About 4% of fossil-fuel extracted annually is presently used interact with them. Microplastics absorb and concentrate
as raw materials for plastics (British Plastics Federation, 2008) hydrophobic pollutants present in sea water at very low con-
and it is the natural gas liquid fraction or low-value gaseous centrations and these can be bioavailable to the ingesting species.
fraction from petroleum refining that is mostly used to make Over 660 species (Secretariat of the Convention on Biological
plastics. The demand on fossil fuel, energy, as well as the asso- Diversity, 2012), ranging from seabirds, fish, bivalves to the
ciated carbon emissions by the industry, will increase as the future zooplanktons at the bottom of the marine food chain, are known
consumer demand for plastics increases. By year 2050 plastics to be affected by plastic debris (Ivar do Sul and Costa, 2014; Van
manufacturing and processing may account for as much as 20% Cauwenberghe and Janssen, 2014) and there is credible evidence
of petroleum consumed globally and 15% of the annual carbon of the bioavailability of pollutants concentrated in the plastic
emissions budget (World Economic Forum, 2016). There is (Heskett et al., 2012; Chen et al., 2017) to the ingesting organisms.
considerable interest in switching to biomass feedstock to make Potential trophic transfer of the plastics and pollutants along the
bioplastics that include the most-used synthetic plastic, food chain (Au et al., 2017) and their potential tainting of human
polyethylene. seafood (Santillo et al., 2017) are particularly serious concerns.
It is the considerable societal benefits of plastics (Andrady and However, broad estimates of global plastic production or MPW
Neal, 2009) that account for its popularity as a material. Plastics generation are inadequate to assess the regional impacts of plastic
represent a low-cost, easily formable, high-modulus, hydro- waste on the ecosystem that would dictate the need for mitiga-
phobic, bio-inert material that finds use in a bewildering range of tion. Future increase in population density and therefore regional
consumer products. It is often the preferred, and with some or even country-level plastic waste generation are spatially het-
products an indispensable, choice in consumer packaging that erogeneous. For instance, while the global population is predicted
accounts for 42% of the global annual resin production (Geyer to increase to over 9.5 billion in 2025 over 97% of this growth will
et al., 2017). Transparent packaging films that are both strong and be in Asia and Africa (United Nations, 2015). Coastal commu-
impermeable to gases and moisture, facilitate conformal packa- nities in those regions will place a disproportionate plastic waste
ging (vacuum packs) or controlled-environment packaging (as in burden on the environment and especially the ocean. Under-
red-meat packs). The exceptional thermal insulation of expanded standing this spatial variation in plastics influx into the ocean
polystyrene foam has ensured its lead in hot-food service appli- requires the development of a high-resolution map of global
cations (Andrady and Neal, 2009). The handful of resins that plastic usage that would indicate geographic bias in future plastic
dominate packaging and food service applications are also the waste trends.
most frequently found in municipal solid waste as well as in Generally, plastics in the global ecosystem is distributed
marine debris (Andrady, 2011): these are polyethylene, poly- between three fractions: plastics in use, post-consumer managed
propylene, polyethylene terephthalate, and polystyrene. Gen- plastic waste, and a mismanaged plastic waste (MPW) fraction,
erally, the lighter, more durable and less expensive plastics the last of which includes urban litter (Geyer et al., 2017).
(especially polyvinyl chloride) have replaced metal and even Packaging-related plastics have a particularly short in-use phase
wood in building applications that accounts for about 20% of and therefore dominate municipal plastic waste and subsequently
global production (Plastics Europe, 2017). The same is true for the mismanaged waste as well. In addition to urban litter, mis-
comfort fibres in fabric and in carpeting where plastic has managed waste also includes inadequately contained waste such
replaced natural fibres such as wool, cotton or silk, for the most as open dumps and are therefore transportable via runoff and
part. Plastic products are indispensable in medical applications wind. Some mismanaged waste may be collected by street swee-
that require sterility and microbial inertness. pers and concerned citizen groups and be re-introduced in one of
Projected increase in future plastic use will result in a con- the two first categories. Managed waste is accounted for and is
comitant increase in post-consumer plastic waste. For instance, typically disposed of by incineration or landfilling. Both per
by 2025 the global urban population is estimated to generate > capita use of plastics and the population density at a given
6 Mt of solid waste daily (Hoornweg et al. 2013). Even using the location determines the local plastic demand by consumers,
present fraction of ~10% plastics in the solid waste stream, this reflected in the in-use fraction. The former generally scales with
amounts to over 200 Mt of waste plastics: this was the entire the local gross domestic product (GDP) (Hoornweg et al., 2013)
global plastic resin production in 2002 (Plastics Europe, 2014). with the more affluent countries using as much as over 100 kg/pp/
The discouragingly slow growth in recycling rates and the likely year (Waste Atlas, 2016). But in populous countries such as India
increase in single-use products, both exacerbate this situation. or China a relatively low per capita use of plastics coupled with a
Packaging products are almost always discarded with their high population density can still yield large tonnage of plastic
functional characteristics virtually intact, permitting both facile waste. A recent study (Jambeck et al., 2015) based on a World
re-use and recycling, however only about 9.4% of plastics (E.P.A., Bank dataset (Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata, 2012) on country-
2016) is presently recycled in the US mainly due to collection specific waste generation and management concluded that the

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fraction of this waste that is reaching the oceans represented 4.8 municipal solid waste (expressed in %). Hitherto, models of
to 12.7 Mt of plastics in 2010 from populations living within plastic waste generation had relied on the data set compiled by
50 km from the coastline. the World Bank (Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata, 2012). In this effort
The present effort is aimed at examining the possibility of we use an alternative source, the Waste Atlas, a resource compiled
improving the granularity of country-level plastic waste generation using country-level data submitted by individual experts from
data, using reasonable assumptions based on population density each country. More recent and detailed data are available from
and affluence. A comprehensive dataset of municipality-level this source compared to the World Bank dataset. A comparison
waste generation data for different countries is not presently between the two datasets is provided in Supplementary Figure 1.
available. While we appreciate the limitations of evolving country- Unfortunately, this collection is non-exhaustive, and information
level waste generation data into higher-resolution maps of finer is provided for some countries only. Data is available for n = 160
granularity, we believe the exercise is important as it yields likely countries for per capita municipal solid waste generation, n = 95
global ‘hot spots’ for plastic waste at present and progressed into countries for unsound disposal fraction and n = 105 countries for
the near future. An important trend is the increased migration plastic proportion in municipal solid waste.
into urban areas that in general would tend to exacerbate the When data was available, we compared these variables with per
developing hot-spots. We therefore employ high-resolution (30 × capita GDP provided by the International Monetary Fund (IMF,
30 arc seconds) population density and GDP distributions to 2016). We performed a Pearson product-moment correlation test
model waste data at cells in a finer geographic grid. The use of for the three waste variables against per capita GDP (Table 1).
these two indicators allows to represent plastic waste generation Both per capita municipal solid waste generation and mismanaged
near large urban areas but also to possibly predict the likely fraction showed a statistically significant correlation with per
accumulation near major transportation axes such as roads and capita GDP. The correlation was expectedly positive for waste
railways which may not be represented by municipality-level data. generation reflecting the higher consumption levels in rich
country and negative for the mismanaged fraction showing a
greater amount of waste unsoundly disposed for developing
Methods countries (Fig. 1). However, per capita GDP and the proportion of
Consumer demand for plastics and per capita GDP relation. plastic in municipal solid waste did not demonstrate a statistically
We use data distributed by Waste Atlas (2016) for per capita significant relationship. This suggests that the proportion of plastic
municipal solid waste generation (expressed in kg y−1), mis- in solid waste is generally independent of the per capita GDP of a
managed fraction (expressed in %) and plastic fraction in country. The proportion of plastic in municipal solid waste for
countries provided by Waste-Atlas was homogeneously distrib-
Table 1 Pearson product-moment correlation test between uted when compared against per capita GDP with an average
per capita GDP and reported waste management data per value of 10.9% and standard deviation of 4.5% (n = 105).
country The statistically significant correlations between per capita
municipal solid waste generation, mismanaged fraction and per
capita GDP allow us to predict these quantities when they are not
Per capita GDP (2016 USD) r p n
reported by Waste Atlas (n = 160 countries reported). When the
Per capita municipal solid 0.67 <0.005 160 proportion of plastic in municipal solid waste is not reported we
waste generation (kg y−1)
Unsound disposal fraction −0.62 <0.005 95
used the global reported average.
(%)
Plastic fraction in municipal 0.14 0.17 105
solid waste (%) Model formulation. Current per capita plastic waste generation
is calculated by multiplying per capita municipal solid waste
Information on per capita municipal solid waste generation rate, unsound disposal fraction and
plastic fraction in municipal solid waste. Pair with p values below 0.005 (in bold) are statistically generation by the fraction of plastic found within waste. When
significant. Per capita GDP demonstrates a statistically significant correlation with per capita solid waste generation data for a country was missing, we derived per
municipal waste generation and unsound disposal fraction, respectively positive and negative.
capita municipal solid waste generation (Msc) from per capita

Fig. 1 Per capita municipal solid waste (MSW) generation a and mismanaged fraction b for different per capita GDP categories of country. Red line shows
the median, the blue box extends from the 25th to 75th percentile, the black whisker extends from minimum and maximum non-outliers and red crosses
shows outliers

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GDP (Xc, in 2016 USD) by introducing an empirical function: distribution to remain the same over time. For time t and in
model cell i of a given country, we computed the plastic waste
Msc ¼ a Xcb ð1Þ
generation A(i,t) following:
Where a = 11.434 (lower: 11.218, upper: 11.953) and b = 0.3433 Aði; t Þ ¼

Pc b !
(lower: 0.3565, upper: 0.3298), best fit parameters for n = 160 xðiÞ y ð i Þ
Pci  Xc ðt Þ a  Xc ðt0 Þ b
countries (Supplementary Figure 2a). The production rates p Msc ðt0 Þ þ a  ð4Þ
y ði Þ xðiÞ
reported by Waste Atlas completed with estimations from this i

relation allowed us to draw an exhaustive list of per capita  PyðiyÞðiÞ  Y ðt Þ

municipal solid waste generation at national level, worldwide. For i
any country, an estimate of total plastic waste produced (A) could
then be formulated: Where Msc(t0) and Xc(t0) are the current national value for
respectively per capita solid waste generation and per capita GDP.
A ¼ p  Msc  Y ð2Þ x(i) and y(i) are the current GDP and population in cell i. Xc(t)
and Y(t) are the respective national projections of per capita GDP
Where p is the average proportion of plastic in solid waste and Y
and population at time t. This model allowed us to produce high
is the country’s total population. When p was not reported by
resolution maps of future plastic waste generation from 2015 to
Waste Atlas, we used the global average of 10.9 ± 0.85% (95% C.I.,
2060, every five years. An additional map was created for 2010 to
n = 105). Value of p is assumed to be the same for all unmanaged
compare results with previous estimates (Supplementary Figure 3).
waste including litter. This method for estimating global plastic
waste generation has a drawback, however, in that it does not
account for spatial heterogeneity within a country. Furthermore, Municipal waste management scenarios. We derived misman-
when integrating national plastic waste generation at global scale, aged plastic waste generation from fraction of unsound disposal
the total was estimated to range between 212 and 229 Mt y−1 for per country reported by Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata (2012) as
2015. A figure higher than the predicted amount derived from proposed in a previous assessment (Jambeck et al. 2015). When
production data, assuming conservatively that 50% of plastic data was not reported (50% of countries) we proposed an
production goes to packaging and household items (i.e., ~50% of empirical formulation to estimate the fraction of mismanaged
380 Mt in 2015 is 190 Mt). A similar overestimation was found waste K from per capita GDP (Xc in 2016 USD) based on the
using the World Bank dataset with which the same method correlation introduced earlier:
resulted in 212 Mt of global plastic waste for 2015. We explain K ¼ e Xc þ f ð5Þ
these results by a bias in estimating solid waste generation in rural
areas. Waste management data is mainly reported for urban
centres and we trust that levels of per capita use may not be With e = −3.13 10−3 and f = 104 (lower: 70, upper: 138), best
representative of rural areas. fit parameters for n = 95 countries (Supplementary Figure 2b).
An important model assumption here, is that per capita solid Many countries with a high GDP per capita had a reported
waste generation scales with GDP inside a country. We used high mismanaged fraction of 0%. To account for accidental and
resolution (30 by 30 arc seconds, ~1 km) gridded population deliberate littering in these countries, Jambeck et al. (2015) used a
density data (Landscan, 2014) and sub-national GDP data minimum threshold of 2% of mismanaged waste. In this study,
(UNEP/DEWA/GRID-Geneva, 2012). The global GDP dataset we conservatively considered a minimum of 1% for our mid-
distinguishes between rural and urban population and allows the point estimates. However, as a significant degree of uncertainty is
mapping of per capita GDP at sub-national scale. We combined associated with this value, we considered using an upper and
these two datasets to estimate per capita solid waste generation lower threshold by varying orders of magnitude from 0.1 to 10%
derived from computed per capita GDP. For a model grid cell i, minimum mismanaged waste. As some countries reported 100%
inside a given country, we computed the plastic waste generation: of mismanaged waste, we also applied a threshold on the upper

 !! limit to account for opportunistic recycling and waste picking.
xðiÞ b b
AðiÞ ¼ p  Msc þ a  Xc  yðiÞ ð3Þ The upper threshold for mismanaged waste was respectively set to
yðiÞ 90, 99 and 99.9% for lower, mid and upper estimates.
Reported and estimated mismanaged fractions K were
Where x(i) is GDP and y(i) is population in cell i. The additional associated to plastic waste generation per country A to produce
correction term allows to scale generation between urban and quantities of MPW B:
rural zones. If per capita GDP in cell i is lower than the national
B¼K A ð6Þ
average Xc, the per capita waste generation, term is reduced from
the national value. We computed national and global generation
by integrating over land cells. Our global estimated municipal
For future projections, we assumed three scenarios. For
plastic waste generation of 181 Mt for 2015 is closer to predictions
scenario A, we considered the case of business-as-usual where
from production data and confirms our assumptions.
the mismanaged fraction reported by Waste Atlas (2016) were
For future projections we used country-scale population
maintained into the future years (estimated from equation (5) at
projections distributed by the United Nations (2015) from 2015
2015 levels when not reported). In scenario B, we varied the
to 2060. We sourced national GDP projections for 2015 to 2021
mismanaged fraction K(t) for each country over time from an
from the IMF (2016) and long-term growth rate projections for
initial value K(t0) using the following:
2022 to 2060 from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD, 2014). Since the gridded distribution K ðt Þ ¼ K ðto Þ þ e  ðXc ðt Þ  Xc ðt0 ÞÞ ð7Þ
of population and GDP used in this study are representative of
the current situation, we scaled the distribution in time using the
country scale projections. As such we neglected the possible Since e is negative, a growth in per capita GDP (Xc) from t0 to t
migration of population or variations in domestic product inside results in the decrease of mismanaged fraction (i.e., as the
countries for our future projections as we considered the relative economy grows, waste management infrastructure improves). A

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Fig. 2 Global mismanaged plastic waste (MPW) generation in 2015. Plastic waste generation is computed globally on a 30 by 30 arc seconds resolution
reflecting geographical heterogeneity based on population and GDP distributions. National data on waste management reported per countries (Waste
Atlas, 2016) is derived to estimate the mismanaged fraction at local scale. The 10 largest producing urban centres are labelled on the map with Manila,
Cairo and Kolkata as the leading agglomerations

minimum threshold ranging from 0.1 to 10% and maximum from municipal plastic waste generation (mid-point estimate of 181 Mt
90 to 99.9% were also applied to this relation. Finally, in scenario for n = 188 countries).
C, we used the same assumption as in scenario B and further Hosting 60% of the global population (United Nations, 2015),
reduced the input of individual countries by capping the fraction the Asian continent was in 2015 the leading generating region of
p of plastic in solid waste to 10% by 2020 and to 5% by 2040. plastic waste with 82 Mt, followed by Europe (31 Mt) and
Northern America (29 Mt). Latin America (including the
Caribbean) and Africa each produced 19 Mt of plastic waste
Plastic waste and watersheds. We introduced a spatial indicator while Oceania generated about 0.9 Mt. However, the proportion
representing the size of the watershed of which a model cell of produced waste that was inadequately disposed varied across
belongs to. Starting from the HydroSHEDS database (Lehner regions (Waste Atlas, 2016). We derived quantities of MPW from
et al., 2008) regrouping global watershed boundaries as polygonal reported waste management data per countries and per capita
features, we computed the area covered by individual watersheds GDP. As a significant level of uncertainty is associated with the
and created a 30 arc second resolution global grid to match with data on municipal waste management, we introduced lower and
our plastic waste generation maps. Individual grid cells were upper ranges along with our midpoint estimate and thereafter
associated to the watershed they belonged to and assigned the reported the ranges in brackets. With an average of 63% of
watershed’s surface area as value. If a grid cell was not located in inadequately disposed waste for 2015, Asia released 52 (42–58)
any watershed, it was considered as oceanic cell. We categorised Mt of plastic waste into the environment, representing 65% of the
grid cells from small watersheds (<10 km2) to continental rivers global MPW generation. Africa, however, had the highest rate of
(>1,000,000 km2) by orders of magnitude of surface area (7 unsound waste disposal with an average of 88.5% resulting in a
categories in total). The main motivation behind this analysis was total of 17 (10–20) Mt of unsoundly disposed plastic waste despite
to identify the fraction of global plastic waste generated in coastal the low levels of resin production. Latin America and the
areas against the fraction generated inland that may reach the Caribbean were the third generating region with 7.9 (6.7–8.3) Mt,
marine environment via rivers. The surface area of watersheds followed by Europe with 3.3 (1.3–9.1) Mt, Northern America with
naturally decreases while approaching the coast from land. Some 0.3 (0.03–3.0) Mt, and Oceania with 0.14 (0.05–0.32) Mt.
smaller watershed may be found in land generally in arid regions Interestingly, except with Asia, the regions with unsoundly
such as desert or mountains. As the waste generation in these disposed plastics, do not correspond to production volumes of
areas is very small since they are generally unpopulated, we plastics in these regions; the Middle East and Africa account for
neglected the contribution of these regions from inland inputs. only 7% of resin production while US and Europe each account
for ~20% of global plastics production. The unfair practice of
importing waste, especially e-waste, from developed nations, is to
Results a large part responsible for this problem in Africa for example
Global plastic waste generation. Combining country-level data (Schmidt, 2006).
on self-reported per capita municipal solid waste (Waste Atlas, We ranked contributors by mid-point estimate of MPW
2016) generation with high resolution (30 arc seconds) distribu- generation at regional and national scale (Table 2). The
tions of global population (Landscan, 2014) and GDP (UNEP/ generation of waste from the Asian continent was distributed
DEWA/GRID-Geneva, 2012), we estimated plastic waste gen- between Southern, Eastern and South-East Asia with respectively
eration at local level. The estimate reflects differences in con- 18.4, 17.4 and 11.7 Mt y−1 of annual MPW generation. Inputs
sumption within a country, differentiating between consumption from China with 17.2 Mt y−1, and India with 14.4 Mt y−1
rates in urban and rural areas. Based on self-reported levels of dominated the waste generation figures for Asia. These two
inadequate disposal, we estimated between 60 and 99 (mid-point: countries provide over a third of the global MPW generation. The
80) million metric tonnes (Mt) of municipal plastic waste were Philippines were the third generating country with 4.52 Mt y−1
inadequately disposed globally into the environment during 2015 but Manila, its capital, was predicted as the largest urban centre
(Fig. 2). The quantity represents about 47% of the global annual for the generation of MPW with at least 0.81 Mt y−1 for the

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Table 2 Top regional and national generators of MPW in Mt y−1 for 2015

Top 10 regions Mt y−1 Top 10 countries Mt y−1

Southern Asia 18.4 (15.1–20.2) China 17.2 (14.7–18.2)
Eastern Asia 17.4 (14.7–18.9) India 14.4 (12.4–15.1)
South-East Asia 11.7 (9.48–12.8) Philippines 4.52 (3.91–4.72)
Eastern Africa 5.89 (2.93–7.10) Brazil 3.68 (3.19–3.84)
South America 5.81 (5.05–6.05) Turkey 2.15 (1.86–2.24)
Western Africa 4.47 (2.69–5.22) Nigeria 1.90 (1.43–2.05)
Western Asia 3.31 (2.48–4.45) Tanzania 1.77 (0.80–2.24)
Northern Africa 3.40 (2.67–3.83) Thailand 1.77 (1.52–1.86)
Eastern Europe 2.66 (0.95–5.34) Indonesia 1.63 (1.37–1.73)
Middle Africa 2.39 (1.34–2.86) Egypt 1.60 (1.28–1.76)
The regions and countries are ranked by midpoint values, the confidence interval is provided inside the parenthesis. See Supplementary Table 1 for a definition of regions per countries.

model suggested the world will produce above 200 Mt of muni-

cipal plastic waste annually and around 230 Mt by 2025. This is in
good agreement with previous projections of solid waste gen-
eration (Hoornweg et al., 2013) with daily estimates above 6 Mt in
2025. Considering global average proportion of plastic in muni-
cipal solid waste (10.9%, lower: 8.3%, upper: 13.2%), a daily input
of 6 Mt of solid waste may represent around 239 (182–290) Mt of
annual generation of municipal plastic waste. Based on long term
projections of population and GDP per countries, we estimated
the global municipal plastic waste generation could reach 300 Mt
annually by 2040 and 380 Mt by 2060. This increase is also in
good agreement with municipal solid waste generation projec-
tions which are not expected to peak within this century
(Hoornweg et al., 2013). To predict the total mismanaged fraction
(MPW) of future plastic production, we initially considered two
Fig. 3 Distribution of annual MPW generation over total land surface area. scenarios. In scenario A, we assumed the case of business-as-usual
Modelled cells were classified by rate of MPW generation (0–1, 1–10, …, where the level of waste management remains at the current
>10k kg y−1). Total land surface area (blue, expressed in % of total status in different countries worldwide. In scenario B, we assumed
modelled surface) and total MPW generation (grey, expressed in % of total waste management efforts will improve with increased invest-
generation) are represented for each cell category ment in infrastructure as the economies in individual countries
grow in the future.
agglomeration, the same annual amount as produced by countries Following a growing demand of plastic by end-users, the MPW
like Sudan or Algeria. Five of the top 10 countries for generation in scenario A would nearly triple from the present
mismanaged plastic waste identified by this model include only value of 80 (60–99) Mt y−1 to 213 (155–265) Mt y−1 by 2060.
5 of the top ten countries identified by Jambeck et al. (2015) for Midpoint plastic demand by end-users in Asia was projected to
2010. Except for Tanzania, all ten were identified in the top 20 steadily increase from 99 Mt y−1 in 2020 to 151 Mt y−1 in 2040
countries in this previous work. However, at least a part of this and 193 Mt in 2060. If no efforts are made in waste management,
discrepancy might be due to differences in methodology adopted generation of MPW in Asia could double from 52 (42–58) Mt y−1
in previous and present studies. The finer granularity of the in 2020 to 129 (104–150) Mt y−1 in 2060. India would become
present model allows us to predict local scale accumulation. Solid the largest MPW generating country by 2035 and would reach
waste is mostly an urban phenomenon (Hoornweg et al., 2013) 46.3 (38.6–52.0) Mt y−1 by 2060, followed by China with 33.3
and our model confirms this by predicting substantial accumula- (28.1–36.8) Mt y−1 and the Philippines with 11.6 (10.1–12.4) Mt
tion around cities and near axes of transportation with 89% of y−1. According to scenario A, cities like Manila, Cairo, Kolkata or
global MPW produced over 10% of the total modelled landmass, New Delhi would reach the 1 Mt y−1 mark for annual MPW
and 64% over less than 1.5% (Fig. 3). High resolution renderings generation before 2060. However, if we assume a gradual
of MPW generation on land are presented in Supplementary improvement of waste management infrastructures with scenario
Figure 4. We ranked global urban centres by MPW generation. B, we estimated that global MPW generation could peak before
Manila, the largest contributor predicted by our model, was 2020 and decrease to 50 (22–94) Mt y−1 by 2060. In this case, the
followed by Cairo and Kolkata with 0.53 and 0.48 Mt y−1. Sao decrease of global MPW generation would mainly be driven by
Paolo in Brazil was ranked fourth with 0.47 Mt y−1. The rest of the rapid economic development in Asia. We found that the
the top 10 cities were in Asia with Bangkok (0.45 Mt y−1), continent could reduce MPW generation below 30 Mt y−1 by
New Delhi (0.41 Mt y−1), Shanghai (0.5 Mt y−1), Kuala 2040 and below 10 Mt y−1 by 2060. This scenario would mean
Lumpur (0.29 Mt y−1), Beijing (0.28 Mt y−1) and Guangzhou reducing mismanaged waste below 10% of total generated waste
(0.27 Mt y−1). by around 2030 for current major contributors such as China,
Thailand, Indonesia or Turkey, and around 2060 for countries
like India, the Philippines, or Vietnam. Our model shows how the
Future scenarios. We predicted future plastic waste generation by main contribution to global MPW production would then shift
considering population (United Nations, 2015) and GDP (IMF, from Asia to Africa. Our projections suggested that African
2016; OECD, 2014) growth rates per country. By 2020, under a demand by consumers for plastic will increase exponentially in
business-as usual-scenario for plastic consumption, our predictive the future decades from 23 Mt y−1 of municipal plastic waste in

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Fig. 4 Future projections of global mismanaged plastic waste (MPW) generation and distribution per continent under three scenarios. Scenario A
corresponds to a business-as-usual case where the level of waste management corresponds to data for 2015 and consumer demand for plastic increases
with economy. Scenario B considers that waste management infrastructures improve as per capita GDP grows. Scenario C reflects a reduction in plastic
demand per capita with fraction of plastic in municipal solid waste capped at 10% by 2020 and 5% by 2040, waste management gradually improves as in
scenario B. (Top, graph) The global midpoint estimates for MPW generation are represented with thick lines while the shaded areas represent our
confidence interval. (Bottom, maps) Continental distribution of MPW generation in 2020, 2040 and 2060 under the three investigated scenarios

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Fig. 5 Distribution of global mismanaged plastic waste (MPW) generation in 2015 by watershed size categories. The surface area of a watershed is a good
indicator to differentiate coastal watersheds from large rivers. An example (top) is shown for the Mississippi river mouth with watersheds of different size
categories. The global generation of mismanaged waste was binned into surface area categories (bottom) from coastal watersheds (<10 km2) to
continental rivers (>1,000,000 km2)

2010 to 72 Mt y−1 in 2060. The demand for plastic by end-users as global population grows. Combined with a gradual investment
in Africa was projected higher than in Northern America or in waste management infrastructure however, the global MPW
Europe by 2035. Under this scenario, by 2060, 8 out of the 10 generation could be reduced to a third of current value with
generating country will be an African country with Nigeria annual average generation below 25 Mt y−1 before 2060 including
(3.08–6.46 Mt y−1), Congo (2.22–6.33 Mt y−1), Tanzania 74% generated in Africa and 21% in Asia. Long term projections
(1.16–6.42 Mt y−1), Ethiopia (1.01–4.10 Mt y−1), Niger for global MPW generation for scenario A, B and C are presented
(0.88–2.69 Mt y ), Sudan (0.38–2.00 Mt y−1), Mozambique
−1 in Fig. 4 as well as distributions per continent. A full breakdown
(0.82–1.64 Mt y−1) and Mali (0.47–1.78 Mt y−1). of results per sub-region with confidence interval for 2020, 2040
Finally, we investigated an alternative option where demand of and 2060 is given for scenario A, B and C in Supplementary
plastic per capita would substantially decrease in the future. We Tables 2, 3 and 4.
introduced a third scenario C, where waste management efforts
improve as the economy of a country grows like in scenario B, but Sources to ocean. The rapid accumulation of MPW on land can
also where plastic use by households is reduced to 10% of result in the contamination of waterways and eventually the
municipal solid waste by 2020 and to 5% by 2040, reflecting marine environment. Through runoff, winds, and gravity, plastic
willingness from country to curb waste generation and ban debris slowly makes its way downhill and enters the sea from
single-use plastics. This objective is reachable as some developed coastal environments (Jambeck et al., 2015) and through rivers
economies already demonstrates such low rate. Notably Den- (Lebreton et al., 2017). A first global estimate of plastic inputs
mark, first country to introduce a tax on plastic bags in 1993 for from land to the sea for 2010 (Jambeck et al., 2015) proposed to
example, now reporting 1% of municipal waste composed of consider municipal plastic waste generation for population living
plastic (Waste Atlas, 2016). We found no significant relation within 50 km from the coastline and assumed 25% (15–40%) of
between fraction of plastic in solid waste and per capita GDP. plastic waste from this population enters the ocean. Under this
Some strong economies for example reported large fractions such condition, we predicted a total of 20.5 Mt of MPW for coastal
as The Netherlands, largest reported figure for a developed population in 2010. Following the study, this quantity may be
economy with 19% of plastic in municipal solid waste. Under a converted to an annual global input into sea of 5.1 (3.1–8.2) Mt.
scenario where countries would align to reduce fraction of plastic The fraction of plastic waste entering the ocean may vary between
in municipal waste to below 5%, the global plastic waste locations, however. The magnitude and timing of plastic waste
generation would drop to around 140 Mt per year by 2040 but displacement on land is poorly known (Horton et al., 2017) and
increase again to 2015 levels with nearly 180 Mt per year in 2060 may be a function of topography, land use, climate, vegetation

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and, particle shape and size (e.g., microplastics may be more Africa, that may not reach this transition before 2060. The con-
easily transported than larger, more complexly shaped debris). sumer demand for plastic in Africa was projected to grow by 375%
Considering populations living within a fixed distance from the from the current demand by 2060, the highest growth for a
coastline may not always be representative of land-based sources continent, the global average being 210%. This exponential
to the ocean as plastic waste generated inland can be transported increase in demand for plastics by the end-user is fuelled by GDP
by rivers. Predicted accumulation of plastic waste on land can be growth but also by a substantial increase of population. Africa’s
distributed into watersheds (Lebreton et al., 2017). Here, we demographic is expected to reach 2.9 billion by 2060 (United
categorised watersheds by surface area considering that small Nations, 2015) representing a population growth of 245% from
watersheds are located directly at the coastline while larger 2015, much higher than any other continents (global average:
watersheds may expand in land and form streams and rivers (Fig. 138%). As a result, despite GDP growth, the per capita GDP
5). We grouped watersheds by orders of magnitude in surface remains sufficiently low for our model to consider a large portion
area from coastal watersheds (<10 km2) to continental rivers of produced waste to be likely mismanaged. These assumptions
(>1,000,000 km2). From our global distribution of mismanaged may have to be further questioned however it is an indication that
plastic waste for 2015, we estimated that 5% of waste was resolving the global issue of plastic contamination in the envir-
discarded directly near the coastline (watershed surface area < onment may require cooperation between cities and countries as
10 km2) and 4% at proximity to the coastline (10 to 100 km2). well as the promotion of further international aid for waste
This result shows that the majority (91%) of MPW was generated management in the future. But more importantly, it shows that
inside larger watersheds (>100 km2) and suggests that rivers may GDP-fuelled demand for plastics by end-users is not sustainable at
be a major vector of transport of plastic waste from land into the global scale and support the necessity to introduce quotas in
ocean. Over a quarter of the global waste was discarded into the plastic use. In a scenario where the plastic fraction in municipal
watersheds of only 14 continental rivers (>1,000,000 km2, namely solid waste is capped to 10% by 2020 and to 5% by 2040, the
the Mississippi, the Nelson, the St Lawrence, the Amazon, the release of plastic into the environment could be efficiently reduced
Paraná, the Congo, the Niger, the Nile, the Zambezi, the Volga, to a third of the current level, assuming significant improvement
the Lena, the Amur, the Yangtze and the Ganges rivers). are also made in terms of waste management to compensate for
population growth. Prohibition of single-use plastics is currently
being proposed in policies of cities, countries and regions around
Discussion the world. To efficiently mitigate the release of plastic waste into
Here we present for the first time, spatial distributions of mis- the environment in the future, our results emphasise two aspects
managed municipal plastic waste generation at an order of 1 km with (1) the improvement of waste management infrastructure as
resolution, worldwide from now to 2060. As synthetized in this well as our capacity of recycling waste and (2) the introduction of
study, these results can be interpreted at global, regional, national a limit on fraction of plastic in solid waste per capita reflecting
and local scale. This information at this level of resolution for reduction in demand for single-use plastics.
GDP and population density, even with the limitation of low- The analysis of our results may not only be constrained to
resolution waste generation data, is important as it can help political boundaries as in this study, we show how considering
policy makers target priority areas for mitigation and develop- physical boundaries may help in understanding the generation of
ment of waste management infrastructures. Furthermore, pro- plastic waste in watersheds and indirectly sources of plastic to the
jected into the future, this dataset can assist countries, regions and ocean (Lebreton et al., 2017; Schmidt et al., 2017). Our data is
municipalities in fixing objectives to reduce generation of plastic made available to assist hydrologist and geologist in quantifying
waste and limit releases into the environment. China and India sources of plastic litter in rivers and soils (Gonzalez et al., 2016;
currently contribute to above a third of the global MPW gen- van Emmerik et al., 2018). This is an important aspect as we also
eration, with GDP growth rate projected above 4% until mid- show that most of the produced MPW each year is located inside
2020s and early 2040 s respectively (OECD, 2014). Under a larger watersheds characterised by a river and several confluents.
business-as-usual scenario, it is fair to expect that consumer Understanding the geography of waste generation can help tar-
demand for plastic will dramatically increase in these countries. geting rivers for mitigation and eventually reduce the source of
According to the World Bank (Hoornweg and Bhada-Tata, 2012), plastic waste to the ocean. The transport of plastic litter on land is
70 and 85% of municipal waste is currently mismanaged in China poorly understood and additional site-specific work may be
and India, respectively. It is crucial for cities and municipalities in required to quantify the portion of litter that is stored in soils and
these countries to invest in waste management and prepare for the portion that enters waterways, and subsequently the ocean.
the surge in consumer plastic demand predicted for the future Other physical boundaries of interest are the average ultraviolet
decades and the associated waste management needs. A scenario radiation levels received by unit of surface area or the average
where China and India reduce the fraction of mismanaged waste ground air temperature as these environmental parameters may
to 50% by respectively 2020 and 2030, and to the current western dictate degradation processes for plastic waste on land and
standard by 2035 and 2050, along with other countries in similar therefore microplastics generation rate. Well outside the scope of
economic transition, shows that we could reach peak generation this study, we noticed however that the current plastic demand by
of MPW at global scale in the next decade. Our results highlight end-users is dominantly distributed in regions with a temperate
the urgency of the situation and the necessity of an international climate, but our projections shows that this demand will shift
law-abiding agreement between countries on the management of towards lower latitude, in much warmer climate, within the course
plastic waste as we could be generating twice the current amount of this century with predicted major consumers in Southern Asia,
of MPW per year, globally, by mid-century if the situation South-Eastern Asia or in Africa. The foregoing discussion was
remains unchanged. These should focus on anti-dumping of based on MPW in general. However, recent research specifically
waste in developing countries, developing better recycling archi- points to ecological impacts of meso-plastics, micro-plastics and
tectures and standardising technologies to prevent escape of nano-plastics in the ocean environment (Avio et al., 2017). These
microplastics from land-based sources into the ocean. smaller fragments are generated by weathering degradation of
However, our results also suggest that gradual increase in waste plastic debris in the outdoor environment, especially beaches,
management infrastructure may not be enough for some parts of followed by mechanical action of wind and waves fragmenting the
the world. Our projections show some countries, particularly in degraded plastics (Andrady, 2017). A combination of solar UV

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