A million bottles a minute: world’s plastic
binge ‘as dangerous as climate change’
A million plastic bottles are bought around the
world every minute and the number will jump
another 20% by 2021, creating an environmental
crisis some campaigners predict will be as serious
as climate change.
More than 480bn plastic drinking bottles were
sold in 2016 across the world, up from about 300bn
a decade ago.
If placed end to end, they would extend more
than halfway to the sun.
By 2021 this will increase to 583.3bn, according to
the most up-to-date estimates from Euromonitor
International’s global packaging trends report.
Most plastic bottles used for soft drinks and water
are made from polyethylene terephthalate (Pet),
which is highly recyclable. But as their use soars
across the globe, efforts to collect and recycle the
bottles to keep them from polluting the oceans, are
failing to keep up.
Fewer than half of the bottles bought in 2016
were collected for recycling and just 7% of those
collected were turned into new bottles.
Instead most plastic bottles produced end up in
landfill or in the ocean. see The Guardian