Recycling of plastic presentation of data

These slides provide a global overview of plastics production, waste, and pollution of our oceans.
They are designed to provide a summary of the plastics challenge and what this tells us about how to address it.
A more detailed exploration of this topic can be found at our topic page on Plastic Pollution

Outline

How much plastic does the world produce?
What is the fate of our plastics?
How much plastic waste do we produce & how much ends up in the ocean?
Where does plastic waste come from?
How much plastic waste is traded?
How do we tackle plastic pollution?

Outline

How much plastic does the world produce?
What is the fate of our plastics?
How much plastic waste do we produce & how much ends up in the ocean?
Where does plastic waste come from?
How much plastic waste is traded?
How do we tackle plastic pollution?

Outline

How much plastic does the world produce?
What is the fate of our plastics?
How much plastic waste do we produce & how much ends up in the ocean?
Where does plastic waste come from?
How much plastic waste is traded?
How do we tackle plastic pollution?

Where does plastic waste come from?

We can answer this in multiple ways:

By sector
By land-based and marine sources
By country or region

Where does plastic waste come from?

We can answer this in multiple ways:

By sector
By land-based and marine sources
By country or region

To identify the main geographical contributors to plastic pollution, we need to explore these figures in several steps:

How much total plastic waste is generated by country
How much plastic waste is generated by coastal populations - this is plastic which is most at risk of entering the ocean
How much of coastal plastic waste is mismanaged (open, dumped or not enclosed) and can therefore enter waterways.

Longer-term shifts in consumption models

Explore this topic in detail at our:

Main topic on Plastic Pollution

About the author:
Hannah Ritchie is a scientist at the University of Oxford.
She is a Researcher at the Oxford Martin Programme on Global Development.
About Our World in Data:
Our World in Data is an online publication that shows how living conditions are changing. The aim is to give a global overview and to show changes over the very long run, so that we can see where we are coming from, where we are today, and what is possible for the future.