The Center for Sustainability of Credit Suisse has published a report on plastic pollution that explores the benefits and costs of plastic across environment, biodiversity and social pillars.

The second session of the United Nations Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee is currently taking place in Paris to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution. The negotiations for a global plastics treaty could yield the most significant sustainability-focused multilateral proposal since the Paris Agreement in 2015. The final remarks and the adoption of the report of this session are expected on June 02, 2023.

Key highlights of the report include:

• Plastic usage dramatically outstripped both GDP and population growth over a 60-year-period, with more and more plastic required to add each incremental dollar to GDP
• The plastic intensity of GDP soared between 1960 and 2020, with plastic usage increasing almost 5,000%, while real GDP grew by around 650% and the world’s population rose roughly 160%.
• Under a baseline scenario that extends current trends and does not assume additional policy action, annual plastic waste is set to almost double from approximately 350 million metric tons to about 670 million metric tons by 2060

Read report >>
END