How plastics are changing the planet | World Economic Forum

Future archaeologists aren’t just going to be digging up old bones: Looks like they’re also going to be sifting though old fossilized plastics.

A review published (paywall) in the journal Anthropocene this month finds plastic has discernibly changed the surface of the planet since humans began using the material in the mid-20th century. They see this as evidence that the Earth is entering what the study’s authors call the “Age of Plastics.”

This chart from the World Economic Forum report The New Plastics Economy Rethinking the future of plastics shows the growth in Global Plastics Production 1950–2014. Data source: PlasticsEurope, Plastics – the Facts 2013 (2013); PlasticsEurope, Plastics – the Facts 2015 (2015). 

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