World’s marginalised communities bearing brunt of plastic pollution, says UN

Communities living close by to plastic production and waste sites can be exposed to toxic chemicals, writes environment correspondent Daisy Dunne

Poor and minority communities face disproportionate impacts from plastic pollution, says the UN (Getty Images)

From the moment plastics are first produced to the point they are discarded as waste, it is poor and minority communities that bear the brunt of their pollution, a new UN report says.

The world produced 8.3 billion tonnes of new plastic from 1950 to 2015, according to the report. If this rate of growth continues unabated, the world will have produced 34bn tonnes of plastic by 2025 – enough to cover every foot of coastline across the world with 100 plastic bags.

The assessment, led by the UN Environment Programme, draws on examples from around the world to illustrate how pollution from plastics is affecting vulnerable people.