Note: Single-source report; awaiting corroboration.
Only about 10 per cent of all plastics produced globally are recycled, resulting in large amounts of plastic waste entering streets, waterways, and oceans each year. An estimated 52 million tonnes of plastic waste reach the ocean annually, impacting over 4,000 marine species, including blue whales, which may ingest millions of microplastic pieces daily.
Efforts to reduce plastic pollution emphasize material innovation, increased use of sustainable alternatives, and scaling down production. The international community is negotiating a global plastics treaty to cap production, with the next discussions scheduled for March 2027.
However, sustainable alternatives such as paper, bamboo, natural fibres, and seaweed-based products face significant obstacles in competing with conventional plastics. One major barrier is the disparity in tariffs: while tariffs on plastic and rubber products have dropped from 34 per cent to 7.2 per cent over the past three decades, alternatives face average tariffs of 14.4 per cent. This uneven policy environment hinders the competitiveness of environmentally preferable materials.
Plastics have benefited from established market infrastructure, economies of scale, and favorable regulatory conditions. In contrast, alternatives are challenged by limited market access and weaker regulatory incentives, despite the global trade value of plastic substitutes reaching $485 billion in 2023.
According to representatives from the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), transforming a global packaging system built around inexpensive, fossil-fuel-based plastics will require addressing these trade and policy imbalances to enable sustainable alternatives to compete and help reduce plastic pollution in the oceans.