It feels like we have always had plastic. It is so widespread in our lives that it’s hard to imagine a time without it. But in reality, plastic products were only introduced in the 1950s. That was a time when the Earth’s population was 2.5 billion people and the global annual production of plastic was 1.5 million tonnes. Now, nearly 70 years later, plastic production exceeds 300 million tonnes a year and the world population is on its way to 8 billion. If this trend continues, another 33 billion tonnes of plastic will have accumulated around the planet by 2050.

The problem of plastic in the environment has received much attention in the last few years. There is a lot of research going on and new papers are being released almost every day. There have also been hundreds if not thousands of news stories on the subject. But sometimes the issue is blown out of proportion or misconstrued. One consequence of this is that there are a number of myths in wide circulation about the problem of plastic in the ocean, and what it means to the environment and human health. In order to deal effectively with the problem of plastic pollution – or any other environmental challenge – we need facts, not myths or scare stories.

#BeatPlasticPollution on World Environment Day 2018
@GRIDArendal @UNEnvironment @IngeborgAase pic.twitter.com/tUrf8ROHix

— Peter Harris (@PeterHarrisGRID) June 4, 2018