Production, use, and fate of synthetic polymers

Plastics, or synthetic polymers, have only been mass-produced for about 70 years, but have outgrown most man-made materials. Despite the large variety of polymers, eight of them make up 95% of all primary plastics ever made, which had exceeded nine billion metric tonnes by the end of 2017. Of the seven billion tonnes of plastic waste generated so far, an estimated 10% were recycled, 14% were incinerated, while the remaining 76% are in landfills, dumps, or the natural environment. If global annual primary plastic production were to continue on its historic growth trend, it would reach 1.1 billion tonnes in 2050. This chapter contains an update of a prior analysis of global production, use, and fate of synthetic polymers.