Nearly 1 Million Plastic Bottles Are Consumed in Every Single Minute:New Study

ALBANY (Scrap Monster): The recent study report published by Euromonitor International notes that nearly one million plastic bottles are consumed by human beings in every single minute. This equates to around 20,000 plastic bottles per second. Further, the consumption of plastic bottles is expected to surge to 1.2 million per minute over the next five years. Towards the end of the decade, the total number of plastic bottles purchased per year is expected to cross half a trillion. The surprisingly alarming rate of plastic bottle consumption is feared to lead to serious environmental danger, warned the report.

The consumption of plastic bottles has recorded dramatic jump over the past decade. As per figures, the consumption of plastic drinking bottles has surged higher by almost 60% from around 300 billion a decade before to as high as 480 billion in 2016. The Euromonitor International report predicts that this figure is feared to increase to 583.3 billion by 2021, mainly on account of huge increase in popularity of bottled water in China and Asia Pacific region.

Drinking water bottles account for much of the plastic bottle demand across the world. China is the leading contributor for the extremely rising demand. The country accounts for almost one-fourth of the global demand. The Chinese purchases of plastic bottles of water increased significantly by 5.4 billion from 68.4 billion in 2015 to 73.8 billion bottles in 2016. Alarmingly, the country’s requirement for plastic bottles is expected to increase in the forthcoming years, the study report noted.

The study points out that majority of plastic bottles used for soft drinks and water are made up of highly recyclable polyethylene terephthalate (PET). However, the concerted efforts to boost collection and recycling of such bottles have failed to keep up with the rise in consumption. Estimates suggest that only less than 50% of plastic bottles were collected for recycling. Also, only less than 10% of those bottles collected were utilized towards manufacture of new bottles. The majority of bottles end up in landfills or oceans. The tremendous growth in plastic consumption thus causes plastic pollution.

An earlier report published by Ellen MacArthur Foundation had warned that the weight of waste plastic in the sea is likely to exceed fish by 2050. Around 5 million tonnes to 13 million tonnes of plastic is feared to leak into oceans every year. These plastics break into smaller pieces, which are then consumed by sea birds, fish and other organisms. By way of consumption of such fish, these plastics enter into human body as well.