MonoSol: A Future Without Waste

The amount of plastic trash that flows into the oceans every year is expected to nearly triple by 2040 to 29 million metric tons.

That single, incomprehensibly large statistic is at the center of a new two-year research project that both illuminates the failure of the worldwide campaign to curb plastic pollution and prescribes an ambitious plan for reducing much of that flow into the seas.

No one knows for certain how much plastic, which is virtually indestructible, has accumulated in the seas. The best guess, made in 2015, was about 150 million metric tons. Assuming things remain the same, the study estimates that accumulation will become 600 million metric tons by 2040.

As plastic flows into the seas and more plastic is made, it also has become increasingly clear that environmental campaigns are not making enough progress. If all industry and government pledges to curtail plastic waste are achieved by 2040, Pew found they’d likely reduce annual leakage into the seas by just a tiny fraction.