The amount of plastic in the oceans is expected to triple by 2040

The amount of plastic waste dumped into the oceans each year is expected to triple by 2040, reaching 29 million metric tons.

These alarming statistics are at the heart of a new two-year project that highlights the failure of the global campaign to mitigate plastic pollution and develops an ambitious plan to reduce the dumping in the sea.

Nobody knows for sure how much plastic, practically indestructible, has accumulated in the seas. The best estimate, dating from 2015, puts it at 150 million metric tons. According to the study, this value should reach 600 million metric tons by 2040 if nothing changes.

The project, set up by Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ, Ltd., a London-based environmental body, advocates an overhaul of the global plastics industry, aiming to transform it into a circular economy based on reuse and recycling. If such a change takes place - and it is not won - Pew experts estimate that the annual flow of plastic waste in the oceans could be reduced by 80% over the next two decades, using methods and technologies. existing technologies. A five-year delay would contribute to the dumping of 80 million metric tons of waste at sea.

The cost of this reorganization amounts to more than 510 billion euros. This would save almost 60 million euros over the next twenty years, mainly due to the reduced use of virgin plastic. “Systemic issues require systemic change,” the Pew report says.