Abstract
Plastics are now the most widely used materials group in the world. Global production of plastics has increased twentyfold since the 1960s, reaching 360 million tonnes in 2018. By 2050, these figures are expected to quadruple. This chapter specifies the scale of production and its environmental consequences, as in increasing ocean litter. The extent to which plastics materials are used, combined with the fact that many of the products are intended for single use, has given plastics a bad name but the fault lies with us rather than with the material itself. How governments, large organisations and individuals have addressed sustainable manufacture, use and disposal of plastics, what impact their actions have had and what more might be done, are at the heart of this chapter.
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Notes
- 1.
mt is abbreviation for metric tons.
- 2.
Kt is abbreviation of kiloton (1000 tons).
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Mossman, S. (2020). Plastics and Social Responsibility. In: Lambert, S. (eds) Provocative Plastics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55882-6_15
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