Mismanaged plastic waste will nearly double to 121 million tons by 2050 unless limits are imposed on plastic production, predicts a recent scientific paper. The study underscores the importance of the upcoming UN Global Plastics Treaty talks in Busan, South Korea, which are seen as a key opportunity for global leaders to adopt measures to curtail the plastic crisis.The research published in Science, which utilizes global and regional plastics datasets alongside socio-economic data and machine learning, foresees a substantial increase in annual GHG emissions. Without intervention, emissions from the plastic system are expected to rise by 37%, reaching 3.35 gigatons of CO2 equivalent over the next 25 years.
