How much plastic has humanity produced in total?
>10 billion tonnes
PlanetHumanity had made about 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic by 2015, and production has run above 400 million tonnes a year since, so the total now exceeds 10 billion tonnes. Of all plastic waste ever generated, roughly 9% has been recycled, 12% incinerated and the rest landfilled or lost to the environment. Half of all plastic ever made was produced after 2004.
Source: Geyer, Jambeck & Law (2017), Science Advances; OECD Global Plastics Outlook (2022)
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