In numbers: Europe’s mounting plastic waste problem unpacked

Source: https://www.investigate-europe.eu/en/2023/in-numbers-europes-mounting-plastic-waste-problem-unpacked/

Author: Attila Kálmán

With so much data circulating on plastic waste, it is difficult to unpack it all. Investigate Europe calculated some striking statistics from this sea of data to give an idea of what our plastic problem is all about. “Plastic is not necessarily a monster,” says Helmut Maurer, a former official in the EU Commission’s circular economy directorate. Cheap, versatile and practical, it’s hard to imagine life without it. “But what is a monster,” he says, “is the way we make use of short-lived plastic. And this is what causes also the bad image and what causes the pollution.”