Ellen MacArthur Foundation x Breaking the Plastic Wave

“We need to raise our level of ambition and match it with bold and urgent action.”
- Dame Ellen MacArthur

In July 2020, The Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ released Breaking the Plastic Wave: A Comprehensive Assessment of Pathways Towards Stopping Ocean Plastic Pollution, one of the most analytically robust studies ever produced on ocean plastics. Thought partners were the University of Oxford, University of Leeds, Common Seas, and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Breaking the Plastic Wave shows that by 2040, if we fail to act, the volume of plastic on the market will double, the annual volume of plastic entering the ocean will almost triple, and ocean plastic stocks will quadruple. This is in line with The Ellen MacArthur Foundation's 2016 analysis, which revealed that in 2050 there could be more plastic than fish in the ocean.

The study also confirms that a circular economy for plastic is the only way to address plastic waste and pollution at the source. This is a vision that already unites 850+ organisations through the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment and the Plastics Pact network.

Find out more here.