⚠️ If nothing is done, plastic waste production is expected to almost triple by 2060 according to OECD’s latest report released early June 2022, Global Plastics Outlook: Policy Scenarios to 2060. As for the amount of plastic waste in the oceans, it should be multiplied by 5. The OECD warns that plastic production and waste will continue to increase even though strong measures are taken at the global level.
📝 In order to find solutions, the OECD is evaluating two potential scenarios, covering the entire life cycle of plastics (production, use, recycling or disposal): 1) a regional action scenario, with different measures depending on countries' means, or 2) a global action scenario with stringent measures worldwide to reduce global plastic releases to near zero by 2060. Both scenarios would result in a smaller increase in plastic production (17% less than expected if nothing is done) and a decrease in "mismanaged waste" and plastic discharges.
💸 The OECD estimates that both options would have a relatively modest cost in terms of GDP: global action reduces global GDP by 0.8 per cent, compared to 0.3 per cent for regional action; but the latter would create large regional disparities, with non-OECD EU countries and sub-Saharan Africa the main losers.
❌ This report shows that by focusing solely on recycling, plastic production and pollution will continue to increase unavoidably even with drastic global action. Yet it is unfortunate that the word “reuse” is not mentioned once in this report.
➰ Again, although recycling is of course part of the solutions, as the last IPCC report highlights, recycling is one of the lower forms of retention of materials (cf. previous Monday News about IPCC report: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6919207810123620352) and does not drastically reduce the amount of virgin materials produced.
📉 REDUCE, REUSE, and then, RECYCLE!
👉🏼 Check the synopsis of OECD’s report:
and the French version is available in the comments of our last Linkedin post