Plastic production has increased more than 200 times since 1950 and hits health at every stage from extraction to disposal, says review in the Lancet

Plastic production has increased more than 200 times since 1950 and hits health at every stage from extraction to disposal, says review in the Lancet

Plastics are a “grave, growing and under-recognised danger” to human and planetary health, a new expert review has warned. The world is in a “plastics crisis”, it concluded, which is causing disease and death from infancy to old age and is responsible for at least $1.5tn (£1.1tn) a year in health-related damages.

The driver of the crisis is a huge acceleration of plastic production, which has increased by more than 200 times since 1950 and is set to almost triple again to more than a billion tonnes a year by 2060. While plastic has many important uses, the most rapid increase has been in the production of single-use plastics, such as drinks bottles and fast-food containers.

As a result, plastic pollution has also soared, with 8bn tonnes now polluting the entire planet, the review said, from the top of Mount Everest to the deepest ocean trench. Less than 10% of plastic is recycled.

  • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
    813·
    6 days ago

    the most rapid increase has been in the production of single-use plastics, such as drinks bottles and fast-food containers.

    God forbid normie adjusts his behaviour ever so slightly.

    Gonna be another 20-30 years for any systematic change… Social security queens and their beloved owners got the entire western world chockholde and they will get more blood out of this rock.

        • surewhynotlem@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          5 days ago

          Lol. You guys make me laugh.

          “I make 50k and social security takes 3k!”

          No, dipshit, you make 47k. You just think they’re taking the money from you because it’s structured in a way to make you annoyed by it. Your company doesn’t NEED to show you how much they pay into SS on your behalf. But they do because then you’ll hate SS recipients and vote against your best interests.

          You’ve been played.

          • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
            15·
            5 days ago

            The state is capturing surplus value of my labour to provide universal health care for people who own housing and hold most the wealth outside the 1%.

            These same people block any political reform that would benefit the working class. Same people are refusing SS reform and are depleting the SS trust fund.

            Learn basic economics and how these regimes actually work.

            PS. FICA is 7.5 twice. So 50k income is being taxed 3750 goes directly from employet and 3750 from the paycheck to 7.5k in total.

            Learn the math while you are at it.

            • surewhynotlem@lemmy.worldEnglish
              3·
              5 days ago

              Learn basic economics

              Shit… I thought I did. I better demand a refund from NYU. I’ll also let my employer know twenty years in finance is worthless and I should be fired.

              SS doesn’t need to have a fund. It doesn’t need to be solvent. Someone decided to structure it that way for political reasons. Think outside the box a bit and you’ll realize that the entire problem is manufactured.

              • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
                12·
                5 days ago

                The model doesn’t work when population is not growing Mr Finance. We are under going a demographic shift that can’t support the benefits paid put at current rate. Once trust fund is depleted either FICA goes up or benefits go down.

                If we know this fact now, why is the fund being ran down at this rate?

                Why should the boomers get paid out more than they out in while younger people will get paid less than what they put in?

                • surewhynotlem@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  1·
                  5 days ago

                  You’re still laboring under the assumption that social security money is somehow different than the rest of the money. It’s all just money. At the end of the day. We can always print more and give it to people.

                  Now that’s a bad idea because printing money is a flat tax, so all we really need to do is tax the rich and give that to people and not need social security.

            • leftytighty@slrpnk.netEnglish
              2·
              5 days ago

              look at this fucker trying to borrow socialist terminology and ideas to advocate against welfare, the surplus value of your labor goes to your capitalist boss you dumb fuck

              • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
                0·
                5 days ago

                Sure, that’s called profit.

                This conversation is about the boomers as a class and about their bootlicking behaviour at expense of working people.

                If you don’t see it… You ain’t looking.

                But I am happy you enjoy paying for universal health care and UBI… Most young people have shittier health care while living in poverty. This system is doesn’t work anymore and it they are running into the ground before your eyes. You accept it though 🤡

                • leftytighty@slrpnk.netEnglish
                  2·
                  5 days ago

                  Ignorant crab in a bucket. What an angry little useful idiot.

                  Yes it’s the democratic institutions that are the problem, don’t look at the small group of economic lords that steal everything from the working class and avoid contributing back.

                  That’s just a healthy profit, it’s the boomers! It’s the immigrants! Look over there.

                  Ignorant little fucking crab

          • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
            14·
            5 days ago

            Ohh honey… You cute of you to assume I am or any one my age will get what we paid into this system.

            We already had 4 once in life time events since I was a kid… While boomer continued their grift.

            This class war has a huge generational element… So is u a boomer or is u an idiot?