OECD: Only 9 percent of plastic waste is recycled

The world is irreversibly polluted. In a world where plastic production has doubled in 19 years, the amount of plastic waste has more than doubled. Noting that only 9 percent of plastic waste worldwide can be recycled, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) called for a "coordinated global solution" to reduce plastic waste.

The OECD has published the "Global Plastic Outlook" report.

In the report, it was stated that worldwide plastic production, which was 234 million tons in 2000, reached 460 million tons in 2019, and the amount of plastic waste, which was 156 million tons in 2000, more than doubled and reached 353 million tons in 2019.

It has been reported that 19 percent of global plastic waste is incinerated, about 50 percent goes to landfills, and the remaining 22 percent is dumped in uncontrolled landfills or the environment. The report also stated that plastics were responsible for 3.4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2019.

The pandemic has increased waste

In the report, it was emphasized that despite the general decline in global plastic use, protective equipment and disposable plastic waste have increased in the last 2 years of the Covid-19 outbreak.

In the report, which stated that the use of plastics decreased by 2.2 percent in 2020, the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, compared to the previous year, with the decrease in economic activity, it was noted that the use of single-use plastics increased, while the use of plastics is expected to increase again as the economies recover.

The OECD has called for an international approach to "improving waste management infrastructure", including €25 billion a year in development assistance for low-and middle-income countries.