The Human Impacts Database

A collection of useful numbers for quantifying the impacts of the human presence on Earth.

This quantity comes from a time series measurement and the most recent value (2015) is reported.


Value:		≈ 4 × 10¹¹ kg / yr see this value in other units This is equivalent to... ≈ 400 Mt / yr
HuID:		97241
Relevant Year(s):		2015
Summary:		Original data set presents data from 1950 - 2015, with 2015 holding the record for plastic production.
Method:		Notably, comprehensive data about global plastic production is sorely lacking. Geyer et al. draw data from various industry groups to estimate total production of different polymers and additives. Some of the underlying data is not publicly available, and data from financially-interested parties is inherently suspect. For this reason, we report the value as approximately 400 Mt and acknowledge that there is considerable uncertainty in this value.
Source:		Geyer, R., Jambeck, J.R., and Law, K.L. Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made.. Science Advances (2015)
Dataset:		Global plastic resin production since 1950 (Geyer2017_plastic_production.csv) global resolution
Trend:
Original Data License:		CC-BY-NC 4.0
Added By:		gchure