Stakeholder alliances are essential to reduce the scourge of plastic pollution

Abstract

Progress to reduce plastic pollution has been painfully slow and the consequent damage to the natural environment and to human health is likely to increase further. This has been because the views and ways of working of four distinct stakeholder communities are not sufficiently well integrated. (1) Scientists, (2) industry, (3) society at large and (4) those making policy and legislation must in future find ways to work together. About 400 million tonnes of plastic waste are generated every year, and this quantity is expected to increase dramatically over the coming decades1. Less than 20% of this waste is managed adequately, with most of it being incinerated, discarded into landfill or released into the natural environment. Much of the public concern has been focussed on the effects of plastic pollution on marine environments, but there is also increasing evidence of the deleterious impacts of plastics in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. According to a recent report by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), over 10 million metric tonnes of plastic enter aquatic ecosystems annually with evidence of significant damage to ecosystem structure and function2,3. In contrast to public perception, the majority of the plastic currently in the sea is not floating but is below the surface and exists as tiny, microscopic particles4 and thus impossible to remove. Furthermore, once out of the direct action of waves and sunlight, degradation is extremely slow;5 although the processes driving this are yet to be understood. Whilst clean-up operations can reduce exposure to large items of plastic in localised pollution hotspots for short periods of time, the only sustainable way to reduce plastic pollution at a global scale is to radically reduce plastic entering the natural environment in the first place. Concern about the impacts of plastic pollution on human health is growing and there is increasing evidence of harm, largely owing to the presence of additives, such as certain plasticizers, fire retardants and colouring agents, some of which act as endocrine disrupting substances and carcinogens6. An often-overlooked fact is that harm to human health from mismanaged plastic waste disproportionately impacts people living in poorer countries