HUGE ADDICTION TO PLASTIC BECOMES WEIGHTY ISSUE

INDUSTRY has made more than 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic since 1950, according to a global study.

Plastics do not break down like other man-made materials, so three-quarters of the stuff ends up as waste in landfills, littered on land and floating in oceans, lakes and rivers, according to the research reported in the journal Science Advances.

“At the current rate, we are really heading toward a plastic planet,” said study lead author Roland Geyer, an industrial ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “It is something we need to pay attention to.”

The study calculated that of the 8.3 billion tonnes made, only 9 per cent was recycled and another 12 per cent was burned, leaving the rest on land and in water. The amount of plastics made and thrown out is accelerating. In 2015, the world created 406 million tonnes of plastic – more than twice as much as made in 1998.

China makes the most plastic, followed by Europe and North America.

Picture: AP The study found that of the 8.3 billion tonnes made, only 9 per cent was recycled and another 12 per cent burned, leaving the rest on land and in water.