Plastic and Chemical Pollution
Hundreds of millions of tonnes of plastic enter the environment yearly, with microplastics now found in human tissue.
Severity score
59.2
Severe · default weighting
Trajectory
Worsening
What this is
Global plastic production continues to rise while recycling rates remain low. Mismanaged waste enters rivers and oceans, breaking down into microplastics that have now been detected in human blood, placenta, lungs and brain tissue. Health effects are still being characterised, but endocrine disruption from associated additives is well documented. Chemical pollution more broadly, including PFAS forever chemicals, is a related and rapidly growing burden.
Score breakdown
Loss of life
20Direct and attributable mortality, normalised across annual and cumulative tolls.
Lives negatively impacted
84People displaced, injured, food-insecure, exposed or otherwise materially harmed.
Financial cost
55Direct damage, lost output and health-system spend attributable to the event.
Environmental impact
88Emissions, habitat and biodiversity loss, contamination and irreversibility.
Trajectory
80Whether the situation is escalating, and how much worse it is plausibly getting.