More than half of the world's single-use plastic in 2019 was produced by just twenty companies. This is the finding of the new report The plastic waste makers index by the Australian Minderoo Foundation, which for the first time has identified the main parties responsible for the climate crisis and environmental catastrophe. And while twenty polymer producers worldwide are responsible for 55 per cent of all single-use plastic waste generated globally, looking at the top hundred companies that figure rises to 90 per cent.

What the report says about single-use plastic worldwide

According to the study, more than half of the 130 million tonnes of single-use plastic waste discarded in 2019 was produced by just twenty companies, including both state-owned enterprises and multinationals, among them oil and gas giants and chemical companies. But there is more: the report names all the companies that produce the polymers which then become everyday single-use plastic objects, from face masks against coronavirus to bags and bottles. Objects used daily, for a very short time, yet disastrous for the environment if not recycled or disposed of correctly. Even more so when they are burned, sometimes illegally in Asia or in Turkey.

Minderoo Foundation @minderoo

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REVEALED: just 20 companies - supported by a small group of financial backers - are responsible for producing over 50% of the world's single-use #plastic waste.

View the list here: plasticwastemakersindex.org

#PlasticWasteMakersIndex #SourceOfPlasticWaste #WeSeeYou #NoPlasticWaste

♥ 107💬 5 18 mag 2021 · Apri su X →

Topping the ranking of countries generating the highest number of single-use plastic waste per capita is Australia, ahead of the United States, South Korea and Great Britain. At the top of the corporate list is ExxonMobil, responsible for 5.9 million tonnes of plastic waste worldwide, followed by Dow, which produces 5.5 million — both headquartered in the United States — and then China's Sinopec, with 5.3 million tonnes. These three companies alone account for 16 per cent of global single-use plastic waste. Of the other companies identified in the report, eleven are based in Asia, four in Europe, three in North America, one in Latin America and one in the Middle East. Behind the production of these polymers stand twenty of the world's largest banks, which since 2011 have lent almost 30 billion dollars. The ranking is led by Barclays, followed by HSBC and Bank of America.

A look to the future

The hundred largest polymer producers all continue to rely almost exclusively on virgin raw material — that is, derived directly from fossil fuels — rather than from the recycling of other plastic. In 2019, the production of polymers recycled from plastic waste accounted for two per cent of total output. And single-use plastics, precisely because they are among the most difficult items to recycle, end up creating mountains of waste around the world. Consider that only 10–15 per cent of these are recycled globally each year. "Over the next five years, global production capacity for virgin-feedstock polymers for single-use plastics could grow by more than 30 per cent, and for some individual companies by up to 400 per cent," the report states. And what is worse is that by 2050 plastic is projected to account for 5–10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.