新研究发现，如果全世界联合起来立即采取行动来降低塑料消费，预计到2040年污染环境的塑料垃圾仍将达到7.1亿公吨。每年都有数百万吨塑料进入海洋，污染了大海，弄脏了沙滩，还危及野生动植物的生命。

If the world embarked¹ on an immediate² and globally-coordinated effort to reduce our plastic consumption, there would still be an estimated 710 million metric tons of plastic that will pollute the environment by 2040, new research has found.

 

The study, from a group of international researchers and published in the journal Science on Thursday, found that even in a "best-case scenario³" where the amount of plastic pollution was reduced by 80% by 2040, there would still be a massive build-up of accumulated plastic.

 

Millions of tons of plastic enter the oceans every year, polluting the seas, littering beaches and endangering wildlife. Plastic particles have been found in soils, in the atmosphere and even in the most remote regions of Earth, such as Antarctica. Microplastics are also eaten by fish and other sea creatures, where they enter the food chain.

 

A rapid growth in plastic production, spurred by a rise in single-use plastics and a "throw-away" culture has exacerbated⁴ the problem, the report said. Meanwhile, waste management systems in countries around the world don't have the capacity to safely dispose of or recycle plastic waste.

 

The team found that there is no silver bullet solution to reducing global plastic pollution.

 

Instead, change is needed across the whole supply chain, they said, from the manufacturing of plastics, to pre-consumption (known as upstream) and after use (recycling and reusing) to stop the spread of plastic pollution into the environment.

 

One key finding the study identified is that waste mismanagement wasn't necessarily a problem of having the recycling capacity, landfill space or incinerators, but the bottle neck came from the collection gap.

 

"There are billions of people without collection services right now. When certain groups say we can recycle our way out of it, you can't recycle something you haven't collected. You can't dispose of something you haven't collected," said Dr. Winnie Lau, co-author of the study.

 

The team noted⁵ that in many middle-income countries, such as India, informal workers and waste pickers made a living from collecting plastics and that their work was a key component⁶ of being able to solve this collection gap. Often these workers have no legal or formal recognition and no protection.

 

By highlighting how vital they are to this sector⁷, the authors said it will hopefully bring them into the part of the economy where their contribution is recognized.

 

 

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