According to a new study from the Stockholm Resilience Centre, the world has far too much plastic and urgent action is needed to prevent an ecological disaster.

Researchers at the Stockholm Resilience Centre say that the amount of plastic and man-made chemicals on the planet now exceeds safe limits for both humans and the planet. There has never been a study like this before.

More than 350,000 different types of chemicals have been identified on the market, and they can be found in virtually every industry, from agricultural crops to automobiles and technology, as well as personal care and household goods.

Many of these chemicals are accumulating in our bodies, waterways, and the environment and pose environmental and health risks at large scales, according to scientists.

“The impacts that we’re starting to see today are large enough to impact crucial functions of planet Earth and its systems,” Bethanie Carney Almroth, co-author of a new study, told AFP in an interview.

The study comes as the United Nations prepares for a meeting on plastic pollution in Nairobi later this month.

According to the findings, insufficient progress has been made in the recycling of plastics and other industrial chemicals. Recyclable plastic currently accounts for less than 10 percent of all plastic waste. Since 2020, plastic production has nearly doubled to nearly 400 million tons annually. Amounts to more than four times the biomass of all living organisms, according to the researchers.

Many developing countries lack proper recycling systems, while the world’s wealthiest nations ship their plastic waste to these regions and bring new plastic products to these markets…

So, if you’re saying, “Enough already,” then that’s what we mean.” Carney Almroth, the Swedish researcher behind the data, told AFP that “maybe we can’t tolerate any more.”

“Perhaps we should set a production limit. Is it possible that we need to say, “This is as far as we can go?”

After years of research, the Stockholm Resilience Centre has discovered what it calls “planetary boundaries” in nine areas that have a direct impact on the stability of our planet. Greenhouse gas emissions, the ozone layer, and freshwater resources all fall into this category.

Plastics, antibiotics, pesticides, and non-natural metals are just a few of the man-made chemicals and products whose effects have long been debated. There are a lot of chemicals in the environment, and researchers say they have a good idea of how they affect the human body.

We are only beginning to understand the long-term consequences of these exposures, Carney Almroth said.

Carney Almroth said, “And we’re talking about 350,000 different substances.” Even large databases like the EU’s REACH Inventory, according to the researchers, only cover half of the chemicals.

To make matters worse, many chemicals and their uses have been kept under lock and key for the past 50 years, preventing the general public and scientific community from fully comprehending the full extent of their potential impact.

“We have a good idea of some of them.” In most cases, “we have no idea,” Carney Almroth says.

“On the vast majority of those, we have no idea how much is produced or how stable they are. For example, how they’ll fare in the natural world or how toxic they are.”

If you look at changes over time and trends in production volumes that are lost in the environment… and connect those trends to the little bit we do know about impacts, you could say that every arrow is pointing in the wrong direction,” Carney Almroth explained.

The scientists claim that international action must be “urgent and ambitious” if the chemicals are to be curtailed and the planet is to be moved toward more sustainable solutions.

Because many of these chemicals and materials are essential to our daily lives, “no single remedy will solve all of this,” she said.

“It seems obvious, but the more you produce, the more you release is only recently accepted as true: