Plastic waste leakage in Southeast Asia, plus China, Japan and South Korea, could rise by nearly 70% by 2050 without stronger policies, according to a new OECD report.
The Regional Plastics Outlook says plastics use in the region is on track to almost double compared with 2022 levels, driven by rising incomes and living standards. ASEAN member states are expected to see a near tripling.
Plastic waste is projected to more than double, while leakage into the environment could grow by 68%, mostly from ASEAN lower-middle-income countries and China. In 2022, 8.4 million tonnes of mismanaged plastic waste entered the environment.
The report calls the region a “hotspot for plastic pollution”, noting that regional plastic waste grew from 10 million tonnes in 1990 to 113 million tonnes in 2022. Informal and unsafe practices, including open burning and dumping, remain widespread in rural areas of ASEAN countries and China.
Annual leakage could reach 14.1 million tonnes by 2050, with 5.1 million tonnes entering rivers, coastal areas and oceans. Over half of the plastics used in the region have a lifespan of under five years, becoming waste quickly.
The OECD says ambitious actions such as bans on single-use plastics and taxes could cut plastic use by 28%, raise recycling rates to 54%, and reduce mismanaged waste by 97%.
Talks on a legally binding global treaty on plastic pollution resumed in Geneva on Tuesday, after previous negotiations in South Korea collapsed last year amid disagreements over curbing production and improving waste management.
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UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged governments to ratify the 2023 High Seas Treaty, warning that illegal fishing, plastic waste and rising ocean temperatures are pushing marine ecosystems toward crisis.
Heavy snow continued to batter northern and western Japan on Saturday (31 January) leaving cities buried under record levels of snowfall and prompting warnings from authorities. Aomori city in northern Japan recorded 167 centimetres of snow by Friday - the highest January total since 1945.
The United States accused Cuba of interfering with the work of its top diplomat in Havana on Sunday (1 February) after small groups of Cubans jeered at him during meetings with residents and church representatives.
Talks with the U.S. should be pursued to secure national interests as long as "threats and unreasonable expectations" are avoided, President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on X on Tuesday (3 February).
At least 12 people were killed and seven wounded after a Russian drone struck a bus carrying miners in Ukraine's southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, government officials said on Sunday (1 February).
Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío has denied that Havana and Washington have entered formal negotiations, countering recent assertions by U.S. President Donald Trump, while saying the island is open to dialogue under certain conditions.
Storm Kristin has left central Portugal with severe destruction, major power outages and a reconstruction bill that officials say could reach billions of euros.
Storm Kristin has killed at least five people and left more than 850,000 residents of central and northern Portugal without electricity on Wednesday (28 January), as it toppled trees, damaged homes, and disrupted road and rail traffic before moving inland to Spain.
Several people, including children, were reported missing in New Zealand's north island on Thursday after a landslide struck a coastal campsite amid heavy rain that caused evacuations of people to safety, road closures and widespread power outages.
At least four people were killed on Tuesday as floods swept across Tunisia during the worst torrential rain for more than 70 years in some regions, and there were fears the death toll could rise, authorities said.
The world has already entered an era of global water bankruptcy, with irreversible damage to rivers, aquifers, lakes and glaciers pushing billions of people into long-term water insecurity, according to a major United Nations report released on Tuesday.
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