24 Jul 2020 --- On the current trajectory, annual flows of plastic into the ocean could nearly triple by 2040, equating to 29 million metric tons of plastic leakage into the oceans at the cost of US$100 billion to the global economy. This is according to a groundbreaking report by The Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ, which employed a comprehensive plastic system modeling tool to create a global analysis that evaluates various strategies to reduce ocean plastic flows and quantifies the associated economic, environmental and social implications of each pathway. The report concludes that the plastic pollution problem can be solved in a generation but requires political leaders, policymakers, business executives, and investors to shift from incremental to systemic change.
