Every year, the world generates hundreds of millions of tonnes of plastic waste, and the vast majority of it ends up in places where it is not useful. A landmark 2025 study published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment, which conducted a global trade-linked material flow analysis of plastics for 2022, found that the global plastic recycling rate has remained stuck at just 9 per cent, with incineration now the dominant disposal method at 34 per cent and landfilling at 40 per cent.