WORLD (Enmaeya News) - December 4, 2025

A new global report says plastic packaging waste could be almost eliminated within 15 years if countries adopt large-scale reuse and return systems.

The study, released by the Pew Charitable Trusts together with researchers from Imperial College London and the University of Oxford, warns that plastic pollution is rising so fast that it could quadruple by 2040.

Today, the world produces around 66 million tonnes of plastic waste every year. If nothing changes, that number could reach 280 million tonnes, equal to a garbage truck of plastic being dumped into nature every second.

Packaging is the largest source of plastic pollution, accounting for about one-third of all plastic waste. The report says this problem is driven by massive growth in single-use plastic, most of it made from fossil fuels.

It also highlights the serious harm plastic causes to the environment, wildlife, and human health. Exposure to chemicals in plastics has been linked to hormone problems, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

The report warns that if plastic production continues to rise, greenhouse gas emissions from plastics could hit 4.2 billion tonnes by 2040, enough to make plastics one of the world’s largest polluters.

But the researchers also offer solutions. They say that reuse and return systems, such as deposit-return programs for bottles and reusable containers for food and household products, could remove up to two-thirds of plastic packaging waste on their own.

Combined with reducing plastic production and switching to safer materials like glass, metal, or cardboard, global plastic pollution could fall by as much as 97% by 2040.

These changes would also save governments an estimated $19 billion per year in waste-management costs.

Project director Winnie Lau said the world has the tools to “nearly eliminate plastic pollution from packaging” but warned that governments and companies must act quickly to achieve this within a generation.