The United States of America (USA) is the biggest
contributor to global plastic waste, a new report on Wednesday revealed,
calling for a strategy to manage the growing pile of plastic.

The USA contributed around 42 million metric
tons (MMT) in plastic waste in 2016 which was more than double China and
European countries’ combined contribution, the report revealed.

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The report also stated that on average
every American generates 130 kilograms (286 pounds) of plastic waste per year,
with South Korea next on the list at 88 kilos per year.

The report, entitled “Reckoning with
the U.S. Role in Global Ocean Plastic Waste,” was mandated by the USA
Congress as part of the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act, which became law in December
2020.

“The success of the 20th century
miracle invention of plastics has also produced a global scale deluge of
plastic waste seemingly everywhere we look,” wrote Margaret Spring, who
chaired the committee of experts that compiled the report.

Global plastic production rose from 20
million metric tons in 1966 to 381 MMT in 2015, a 20-fold increase over half a
century, the report said.

The report stated that plastic use on land
has the potential to reach the oceans via rivers and streams. Because of this,
a thousand species of marine life are susceptible to plastic entanglement or to
ingesting microplastics, which then make their way through the food web back to
humans.

The report said an estimated 8 MMT of
plastic waste enters the world annually, “the equivalent of dumping a
garbage truck of plastic waste into the ocean every minute.”

According to the report, the amount of
plastics discharged into the ocean could reach up to 53 MMT per year by 2030,
roughly half of the total weight of fish caught from the ocean annually.

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It has also suggested a number of steps to
address the crisis, especially reducing virgin plastic production. Other
measures suggested is using materials that dissolve quickly and are easily
recycled, the reduction of certain single-use plastics, and improved waste
management, such as techniques to remove microplastics from wastewater.