Plastics Cause Over $1.5 Trillion in 'Health-Related Economic Losses' Per Year Globally

As world leaders prepared to take part in the final round of plastics treaty talks in Geneva this week, a study published in The Lancet on Sunday estimated that plastics are responsible for more than $1.5 trillion in "health-related economic losses" worldwide per year.

"Plastics are a grave, growing, and under-recognized danger to human and planetary health," reads the study, which was released two days before the second part of the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), a body tasked with developing a legally binding treaty on plastic pollution.

The new study, a review of recent research on plastics, notes that the "principal driver" of the global plastics pollution crisis is the "accelerating growth" of production, which has surged "from 2 megatonnes (Mt) in 1950 to 475 Mt in 2022 that is projected to be 1200 Mt by 2060."

"Plastics cause disease and death from infancy to old age and are responsible for health-related economic losses exceeding US$1.5 trillion annually," the study states. "Yet, continued worsening of plastics' harms is not inevitable. Similar to air pollution and lead, plastics' harms can be mitigated cost-effectively by evidence-based, transparently tracked, effectively implemented, and adequately financed laws and policies."

Treaty proponents see the talks set to begin in Geneva on Tuesday as the "last best chance" for nations to strike an agreement that requires cuts to plastic production. More than 99% of plastic is made from fossil fuel chemicals, according to the Center for International Environmental Law, which explains why oil and gas giants and petrostates are leading the opposition to any treaty proposal that caps production.

"There is enough information on trends in plastic production to recognise that in the absence of intervention, they will get worse."

Politico reported Sunday that "big oil producers are preparing to fight for the future of plastic production at a global summit in Switzerland this week, facing off against greener adversaries including the European Union."

"But this time, the pro-plastic camp—led by Saudi Arabia—has a formidable hitter in its corner: President Donald Trump's America," the outlet added.

Reuters similarly reported that efforts to curb plastic production "are threatened by opposition from petrochemical-producing countries and the U.S. administration under Donald Trump."

"A source familiar with the talks said the U.S. seeks to limit the treaty's scope to downstream issues like waste disposal, recycling, and product design," Reuters reported.

The new Lancet study describes "inadequate recovery and recycling" as a secondary driver of the plastic pollution crisis, which is damaging oceans, waterways, and communities around the world. But the "first and most fundamental" driver is rising plastic production, the study argues.

"It is now clear that the world cannot recycle its way out of the plastic pollution crisis," the study says. "The plastic crisis is not inevitable. Although there is much we still do not know about plastics' harms to human health and the global environment, and more research is certainly needed, we have enough data now to know that these harms are already considerable, and there is enough information on trends in plastic production to recognise that in the absence of intervention, they will get worse."