Production, Use and Fate of All Plastics Ever Made

I designed figure 2 for a paper that was recently published in Science Advances: Production, use and fate of all plastics ever made, by R. Geyer, JR. Jambeck, and KL. Law. The article is open- access and can be seen here: http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/7/e1700782. 

The article has gotten a lot of media attention and was written up in the New York Times, Reuters, and National Geographic. Sadly, it showed that 91% of plastic produced has not been recycled, and that rates of plastic production are only increasing over time. Since plastic never really decomposes, we risk drowning our planet in plastic waste unless efforts are taken to curb production and ramp up efforts at reuse and proper disposal. This can be helped with personal use choices (bring your own produce bags to the store, skip the straw, etc.), but also needs to be addressed at the policy level to encourage corporate responsibility and innovative packaging solutions. Please read up and then contact your local government representatives if you want to see a change!