Social cost of 2019’s plastic is more than the GDP of India: WWF

The pollution, emissions and clean-up costs of plastic produced in 2019 alone could be $3.7 trillion, according to a report released Monday by wildlife charity WWF, warming of the environmental and economic burden of this “seemingly cheap” material.

There is increasing international alarm over the sheer volumes of fossil-fuel based plastics entering the environment, as micro plastics have infiltrated even the most remote and otherwise pristine regions of the planet.

In its report, WWF said societies were “unknowingly subsiding” plastic, with their estimates for the lifetime costs of 2019 production equivalent to more than the gross domestic product of India.

“Plastic appears to be a relatively cheap material when looking at the market price primary plastic producers pay for virgin plastic,” said the report Plastics: The cost to society, environment and the economy, produced for WWF by the consultancy Dalberg.

“However, this price fails to account for the full cost imposed across the plastic life cycle.”

It estimated that unless there was concentrated international action, a projected doubling of plastic production could see costs rocket by 2040 to $7.1 trillion.

The analysis looked at factors including the greenhouse gas emissions in the production process, health impacts, waste management and estimates of the reduction in the economic “services” of ecosystems on land and in water.