This is what countries are doing to fight plastic waste

Jun 8, 2018

A fisherman walks past a plastic bottle on the beach in Veracruz port on the outskirts of Panama City September 16, 2013. The National Association for the Conservation of Nature (ANCON) reports that the majority of Panama City's beaches and rivers are contaminated with plastic and general waste due to lack of awareness for waste management, causing major problems for fishermen and negative impact on mangroves and their wildlife. According to the Plastic Oceans Foundation, more plastic has been produced over the last ten years than over the whole of the last century. Picture taken September 16, 2013. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso (PANAMA - Tags: ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY)

The last 60 years plastic has become the material that has saved lives, but is now deemed a huge global issue. Image: REUTERS/Carlos Jasso (PANAMA - Tags: ENVIRONMENT SOCIETY)

Briony Harris

Senior Writer, Formative Content

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how Inequality is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Inequality

More than 300 million tons of plastic waste was generated in 2015 Image: UN Environment

Regulations regarding single-use plastic are soaring Image: UNEP

The vast majority of plastic packaging waste ends up as litter Image: UNEP

Have you read?

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.