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" I just want to say one word to you . Just one word . Are you listen ? Plastics . "
This famous tune from the 1967 classical film " The Graduate " was meant as advice for Dustin Hoffman ’s character , Benjamin Braddock , but in retrospect , it should have been a word of advice .
Plastic picked from the landfill for recycling.
A new survey , which is the first world analysis of all mass - produced plastics ever made , recover that since large - scale manufacturing of plastics take off in the 1950s and until 2015 , humans have bring out about 9 billion tons ( 8.3 billion metric short ton ) of credit card . [ In Photos : World ’s 10 Most Polluted Places ]
To put that in view , all that plastic would be equivalent to 85,567 aircraft " supercarriers " like the USS Gerald R. Ford , which weighs 107,000 wads ( 97,000 metric tons),according the U.S. Navy .
Of those 9 billion tons , half was made in the last 13 years , tell Roland Geyer , an associate professor of industrial bionomics at the University of California , Santa Barbara , and lead author of the new study , which was publish online today ( July 19 ) in thejournal Science Advances .
" You could say , ' What a phenomenal success story , ' but I do believe it will add up with some heavy environmental collateral damage , " he secern Live Science .
As of 2015 , about 7 billion oodles ( 6.3 billion metric tons ) of credit card have been disposed of as waste , with only 9 percent of it recycled , 12 per centum incinerate , and a humongous 79 percentage finding its way into landfill , the research worker report .
If this does n’t change , 13.2 billion tons ( 12 billion metric heaps ) ofplastic wastewill be cast aside of in landfills by 2050 , Geyer and his colleagues drop a line in the subject field .
Those were really stunning numeral at the meter , Geyer said , and he was compel to get a more comprehensive view of society ’s plastic use and direction . But now that he knows the big word-painting , Geyer said he ’s no longer surprise by the amount of pliant shipboard soldier debris .
" It ’s a lot , but it ’s only a fraction of the entire amount we ’re make , " he say .
Currently , the humans produces 440 million tons ( 400 million metrical wads ) annually , he said . The amount in the ocean is about 1 or 2 percentage of that sum . [ In Images : The Great Pacific Garbage Patch ]
To arrive at their determination , Geyer and his colleagues pulled data , usable publicly and in camera , from several different industriousness association describing output of high - tightness polyethylene ( PE ) , abject - density and linear broken - denseness PE , polypropene ( PP ) , polystyrene ( PS ) , polyvinylchloride ( PVC ) , polyethylene terephthalate ( PET ) and PUR resin ; and polyester , polyamide and acrylic ( PP&A ) fibers . The sketch did not include bio - based or biodegradable plastics , which account for 4.4 tons ( 4 metric oodles ) p.a. .
Originally , the investigator accumulate numbers for credit card that people practice in quotidian situations , such as promotion , household items , railway car parts , electronics and other vulgar products . But then , Geyer said the research worker decided to includeplastic fibers used in material , such as in sheepskin and polyester , which are used to make wear , carpets , curtains and piece of furniture .
" I was really surprised by how big the production numbers were , " he tell .
In 2015 , 66 million tons ( 60 million metric tons ) of synthetic fibre were fabricate , about as much as the amount of aluminum that was made in that same class , he said .
When the scientist look at the aliveness cycle of plastics , they discover that 60 per centum of all plastics bring forth has been discarded into landfill or some other part of the environment . Plastics , which are made from fossil fuels , do not biodegrade . or else , they break down into tinier " micro - plastics , " which have been shown to infiltrate devil dog and fresh water sources where their impact is still largely unknown , Geyer said .
Geyer is convinced that treat with the plastic waste problem want a solution that goes beyond recycling . " It ’s not up to the job , " he said .
Rather , he said the problem need to be tackle with the entire tool outfit of sustainable material management , which include not only recycling but also commutation , reduce the amount of materials required to make a intersection or construct a building , and perhaps creating energy through incineration .
" Hopefully , everyone who read this article will come in off with the same idea , that we need to modify the way we make utilisation of and manage charge plate , " he say .
Original clause onLive Science .
