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India leads the world in generating plastic pollution, producing 10.2 million tons a year (9.3 million metric tons), far more than double the next big-polluting nations, Nigeria and Indonesia. China, often villainized for pollution, ranks fourth but is making tremendous strides in reducing waste, Velis said. Other top plastic polluters are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia and Brazil. Those eight nations are responsible for more than half of the globe’s plastic pollution, according to the study’s data.

The United States ranks 90th in plastic pollution with more than 52,500 tons (47,600 metric tons) and the United Kingdom ranks 135th with nearly 5,100 tons (4,600 metric tons), according to the study.

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[-] 4am@lemm.ee 16 points 3 months ago

Holy crap, the USA is 90th?? I thought we made a shit ton of plastic pollution, carelessly! How the fuck are other nations making so much more?

[-] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 16 points 3 months ago

Article makes a good point:

Outside experts worried that the study’s focus on pollution, rather than overall production, lets the plastics industry off the hook. Making plastics emits large amounts of greenhouse gas that contribute to climate change.

"These guys have defined plastic pollution in a much narrower way, as really just macroplastics that are emitted into the environment after the consumer, and it risks us losing our focus on the upstream and saying, hey now all we need to do is manage the waste better,” said Neil Tangri, senior director of science and policy at GAIA, a global network of advocacy organizations working on zero waste and environmental justice initiatives. “It’s necessary but it’s not the whole story.”

We focus on half the problem, the half we burn considerable fossil fuels to move the plastic waste just so it can be burnt somewhere else.

No one is really doing enough.

It's just when you set metrics and only care about meeting those metrics, you often lose sight of the goal.

[-] Sanctus@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

This society is really going to have to destroy itself to stop, isn't it? I didn't even think about that. How we're shipping waste all around the world, shipping half built parts overseas and back just because its cheaper to put two bits together in another country. I'm pretty sure the plan at this point is everyone without a bunker dies.

[-] Zirconium@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Parable of the sower by Octavia Butler is what I imagine

[-] metaStatic@kbin.earth 1 points 3 months ago

America doesn't make anything anymore

[-] Chocrates@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

Microplastics in the brain. Pfas in my floss. Even if we survive climate change our kids are going to have so much shit to fix

[-] Nythos@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 months ago

But at least the ultra wealthy got to make a couple extra £££

Just think about how much richer we made the rich.

[-] jewbacca117@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

At least we cut back on straws!

[-] henfredemars@infosec.pub 2 points 3 months ago

If these governments cannot address plastic pollution, perhaps we should reduce plastic production to prevent it from entering our waterways in the first place.

[-] Allonzee@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

In 100-200 years, this will be humanity's legacy.

this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2024
133 points (98.5% liked)

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