You know how aggravating it is when you see someone on the freeway driving in front of you roll down their window and chuck an empty water bottle onto the side of the road?
Multiply that by a 25 billion, and you’ll get an idea of what’s happening on planet Earth as it pertains to single-use plastic item polluters.
The Plastic Waste Makers index published a list that names 20 companies around the world that are the leaders of the plastic supply chain, and they are the companies that manufacture polymers. Those are what’s known as the building blocks of plastics, so in essence, these companies make the plastic that gets dumped into the ocean and landfills.
The publication also outed the financial backers of these 20 companies.
What are single-use plastics? You can probably guess. They are the bottles, food packages and plastic bags that are discarded every day.
The plastic used to make these thins come from fossil fuels, and 55% of the world’s single-use plastic waste comes from a dirty dozen plus eight list of global corporations.
So who are they? ExxonMobil is at the top of the list. They contribute almost six million metric tons to global waste.
Not far behind the oil and gas behemoth is Dow, followed by Chinese company Sinopec.
The report also said that 90% of the total global single-use plastic production comes from just 100 companies.
Findings from the research of The Plastic Waste Makers Index also uncover who the enablers for these companies are, the banks and financial firms that supply the capital.
The report shows that almost 60% of the total funding to create plastic waste comes from 20 global banks, who have provided $30 billion worth of loans to them.
The banks including Barclays, HSBC and Bank of America according to CNBC.
The countries that lead the world in the amount of throwaway plastics according to the report are the United States and Australia, with 50kg per person.
The problem is going to get much, much worse before it gets better, because the same report shows that plastic production is set to grow 30% in the next five years.
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