For my data sources I'm using a series of .csv files that have information on plastic pollution like the following:
- Plastic production per industry sector per year in tonnes
- Plastic wasted per industry sector per year in tonnes
- Average mean product life for each plastic use
- Global plastic waste statistics
- Mismanaged global waste per capita
- Plastic waste average breakdown per polymer
What I learned from reading this information is that in 2015 there was about 407 million tonnes of primary plastic produced and three quarters of that (301 million tonnes) ended up as waste.
146 million tonnes of the ones produced are from the packaging industry yearly and 141 million tonnes of that goes to waste.
Out of that 141 million ton waste there is a breakdown of different polymers that end up wasted.
- LDPE: 57 million tonnes #1
- PP: 55 million tonnes #2
- HDPE: 40 million tonnes #3
- PVC: 15 million tonnes #8
These materials are very common in beauty industry packaging but I haven't found exact statistics on how much of it is from cosmetics and personal care.
Using the data from the Average Mean Product Life for plastic packaging and the average of the Mismanaged Global Waste per Capita for each country it could be estimated how much a single person with a considerable attachment to buying cosmetics can contribute to the pollution problem. Ideally I would gather numbers from real cases and average.
Ideally, I'd like to estimate how much current damage a single person can do over time in order to show how reversing the current course can have wonderful effects. I'd like to make interactive visuals that will show people the effects of extending Mean Product Life for their plastic products vs reducing production vs better managing the waste on the Global Waste Total
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