Oceans to have more plastics than fish by 2050: WEF Report

January 22, 2016

As per recently released World Economic Forum (WEF) report, oceans will have more plastics than fish by 2050 if the ongoing practice of dumping plastics continues.
This report has been prepared as part of Project MainStream which is a joint collaboration between the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and WEF with support from McKinsey & Company.
WEF Report Highlights

Every year at least 8 million tonnes of plastics leak into the ocean, which is equivalent to dumping the contents of one garbage truck into the ocean every minute.
It has been estimated by researches that presently there are over 150 million tonnes of plastics in the ocean.
In the past half-century use of plastics has increased twenty-fold and is expected to double again in the next 20 years.
Most plastic packaging is used only once and dumping it leads to loss of 95 per cent of the value of plastic packaging material worth 80-120 billion dollars annually.
It is necessary to take steps for effective after-use pathways for plastics, and to reduce leakage of plastics into natural systems, especially oceans.

Plastic Ban in India

Under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 selling of merchandise into polythene bags is banned.
Sikkim was first state in India to achieve the status of plastic bag-free status. Gujarat has announced ban on the use of plastic in the State.
Uttar Pradesh also has enforced the blanket ban on all varieties of polythene bags, irrespective of their thickness.

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