The Lancet review found that plastics endanger human and planetary health at ‘every stage of their lifecycle’, from fossil fuel extraction, production, use, recycling and disposal. Plastics are a ‘grave, growing, and under-recognised danger’ to human and planetary health, the study found.

The world is in a ‘plastic crisis’, it concluded, that is responsible for health-related economic losses exceeding US$1·5 trillion annually with impacts ‘disproportionately’ hitting low-income and at-risk populations.

The study says the principal driver of the crisis is plastic production, which is 200 times higher than in 1950 – increasing from 2 megatonnes (Mt) in 1950, to 475 Mt in 2022.

Plastic pollution has also increased with 8000 Mt of plastic waste now polluting the planet and less than 10% of all the plastic that’s ever been made ever being recycled.