The accumulated amount of plastic waste since plastic was invented has reached almost 6 billion tonnes.
Currently 250 million tonnes are added to this total every year and this amount is continuing to grow. Despite political pressure and increasing negative comment the use of plastic is expected to increase strongly worldwide.
There is a worldwide shortage of recycling capacity and the global market for plastic waste collapsed when China banned imports of contaminated waste (1.1.2018). This guarantees that there will be no shortage of mixed and contaminated plastics for us to process in the foreseeable future.
There is immense global pressure to deal with plastic waste and currently no good alternative scalable solutions on the market.
Recycling options are not keeping up. Plastic waste is destroying the natural environment and much of it ends up in the oceans where it is almost impossible to collect.