Plastic: A Major Challenge for Humanity!

Rapidly Growing Consumption

 Global plastic production—and consequently the resulting amount of waste—continues to rise. While production is declining in Europe, it is largely being shifted to the United States, the Middle East, and China to meet European demand (AFP 2024). If this trend continues, global plastic use is expected to triple by 2060 (OECD 2023)!

Due to the enormous volumes produced, the often short life cycle of these items, the pollution caused by their degradation, and the complexity of recycling, plastics pose a major environmental and public health challenge.

Situation in Switzerland

Switzerland ranks 8th in the world in terms of per capita single-use plastic waste generation (Minderoo Foundation 2021). In 2017, each resident used approximately 120 kg of plastic. Of the 790,000 metric tons of plastic waste produced each year, nearly half (43%) had a lifespan of less than one year. This is the case with packaging, for example (FOEN 2025a).

Unfortunately, 14,000 metric tons of this waste end up in Switzerland’s waterways and soil (FOEN 2025a). As it breaks down, it generates large quantities of microparticles that are highly harmful to the environment, animals, and human health. Furthermore, it is estimated that it takes approximately 10 to 20 years for a plastic bag to completely degrade, and as long as 450 years for a plastic bottle (IFPEN 2026).

Most plastic ends up in our trash. In the canton of Vaud, for example, plastic accounts for nearly 20% of the weight of trash bags (State of Vaud 2026).  Once discarded, plastics account for a considerable volume of waste that is incinerated; the combustion of this waste generates residues that can make up as much as 20% of the bag’s weight and must then be landfilled. This isn’t unique to plastic, but it serves as a reminder that waste never completely disappears!

Harmful and invisible substances

Plastic may seem inert at first glance, but we now know that this is not the case. More than 16,000 different chemicals may be present in plastics, about a quarter of which are subject to specific regulations due to their hazardous nature (Food Packaging Forum 2024). Some of the substances released are phthalates, endocrine disruptors that can, among other things, affect fertility, trigger allergies, and impact development, growth, reproduction, metabolism, immunity, and behavior (FOEN 2024). Their impact on health is such that the associated costs were estimated at between 46 and 288 billion euros per year in the EU in 2016 (Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, 2016).

In addition to the effects specific to each substance, there is a “cocktail effect”: when present simultaneously, these numerous chemicals can interact and produce combined effects, the health consequences of which remain largely unknown to researchers.

Micro- and nanoplastics

As plastics degrade, they also release particles invisible to the naked eye—microplastics and nanoplastics—that are found everywhere in our environment: in the air, in lakes, rivers, and soil, but also in food and drinking water (FOEN 2020). Microplastics are also present in the human body (in the lungs, liver, blood, and even the brain), with potential consequences for cardiovascular health, fertility, and children’s brain development—the full extent of which is still unknown.  

 In 2017, the oceans contained 51 trillion microplastic particles—500 times more than the number of stars in the galaxy (United Nations, 2017).

For more information: a new thematic page on microplastics is coming soon

Plastic and Recycling

The challenge of recycling plastic lies in its manufacturing process and its diversity. Derived from petroleum refining, plastic in its liquid state undergoes various transformations (heating, cooling, polymerization) and is often combined with various chemical additives, which give it properties such as transparency, flexibility, and strength. As a result, there are a vast number of types of plastics, composed of dozens of polymers and additives.

It is therefore rather unrealistic to claim that plastics can be recycled as a whole, especially since the complexity of the solutions would likely make the process very costly, as indicated by a study commissioned by the FOEN and several cantons (KuRVe, 2017).

In Switzerland, nearly 83% of plastic waste is incinerated, and only 9% is recycled (FOEN, 2025b). PET recycling is an exception: in 2024, its recycling rate was 84% (FOPH, 2025).

However, plastic cannot be recycled indefinitely, and its quality deteriorates. PET can only be recycled 3 to 5 times to make new bottles. Other plastics can only be recycled to produce lower-quality plastics, used, for example, to make flower pots or fleece jackets. This is called downcycling: a process by which material waste or a useless product is transformed into a new material or product of lower quality or value.

Recycling also requires significant resources for the collection, transportation, sorting, and recovery of plastic waste, thereby consuming energy, fuel, and money.

Thus, recycling is by no means a panacea. This is especially true since a significant portion of recycling does not take place in Switzerland. Nearly 87,000 metric tons of plastic waste were shipped abroad in 2024, mostly to Germany and Austria, but also to Malaysia and Thailand (Federal Customs Office). In addition to transportation, the environmental and social impact of processing plants is often shifted to countries where costs and standards are lower (Eastern Europe, etc.). China, followed by other countries, banned the export of plastic waste to its territory in early 2018, after receiving 106 million metric tons of waste over 25 years (Brooks et al. 2018).

Solutions

To reduce plastic pollution in the long term, we must tackle the problem at its source. Not all solutions are equally effective: the priority is to avoid the production and consumption of plastic before seeking to reuse or recycle it.

At the global level, this involves:

• Reduce packaging and disposable products (manufacturing, retail): eliminate unnecessary packaging and overpackaging, and reduce the use of single-use products.
• Promote the extension of the life cycle and the reuse of plastic items and packaging.
• Expand the use of standardized reusable containers and develop the necessary infrastructure to make it easier for consumers to use them (availability of containers, ease of return, etc.).
• Promote eco-design: Design products from the outset to reduce their environmental impact by minimizing the materials used and making them easier to reuse, repair, and recycle (construction, furniture, clothing, toys, recreational equipment, etc.).

Legal requirements may encourage or compel manufacturers to make such changes (See our topic page: Waste Management in Switzerland: Legal Framework and Current Challenges)

Further Reading

Atlas of Plastic, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, La Fabrique Écologique, and Break Free From Plastic, 2020

Flore Berlingen. (2021). Recycling: The Great Smoke Screen. Published by Rue de l’Echiquier.

Nathalie Gontard and Hélène Seignier. (2020). Plastic: The Great Craze. Editions Stock.

References

AFP. (2024). European plastics industry ‘in trouble’ as market share falls https://phys.org/news/2024-03-european-plastics-industry-falls.html

OECD. (2023.) Global Outlook on Plastics. https://www.oecd.org/fr/publications/perspectives-mondiales-des-plastiques_c5abcbb1-fr/full-report/component-9.html#chapter-d1e3652-6f2704d3c0

Minderoo Foundation. (2021). The Plastic Waste Makers Index, p. 63. 20211105-plastic-waste-makers-index.pdf

FOEN. (2025a). Plastics in the Environment. https://www.bafu.admin.ch/fr/les-plastiques-dans-lenvironnement

IFPEN. (2026). Everything You Need to Know About Plastic Recycling. https://www.ifpenergiesnouvelles.fr/enjeux-et-prospective/decryptages/climat-environnement-et-economie-circulaire/tout-savoir-recyclage-du-plastique

Canton of Vaud. (2026). The first analysis of household waste in Vaud yields its results. https://www.vd.ch/actualites/communiques-de-presse-de-letat-de-vaud/detail/communique/la-premiere-autopsie-des-ordures-menageres-vaudoises-livre-ses-resultats

Food Packaging Forum. (2024). PlastChem report summarizes current scientific knowledge on plastic chemicals. https://foodpackagingforum.org/news/plastchem-report-synthesizes-current-science-on-plastic-chemicals

FOEN. (2024). Endocrine disruptors. https://www.bag.admin.ch/dam/fr/sd-web/2ED3kySEcqXc/

Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences. (2016). Health Costs That May Be Associated with Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals, https://www.uu.nl/sites/default/files/rijk_et_al_2016_-_report_iras_-_health_cost_associated_with_edcs_3.pdf

FOEN. (2020). Plastic in the Swiss Environment. https://www.newsd.admin.ch/newsd/message/attachments/61314.pdf

United Nations. (2017). “Turn the tide on plastic,” urges the UN, as microplastics in the oceans now outnumber the stars in our galaxy. https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/02/552052-turn-tide-plastic-urges-un-microplastics-seas-now-outnumber-stars-our-galaxy

KuRVe. (2017). Economic and Ecological Analysis of Systems for the Collection and Recycling of Household Plastics in Switzerland. https://www.bafu.admin.ch/dam/fr/sd-web/agvedBZ9TCyB/

FOEN. (2025b). FAQ – Plastics in the Environment https://www.bafu.admin.ch/fr/faq-matieres-plastiques-dans-lenvironnement

FOPH. (2025). Waste Statistics: In Switzerland, More Than Half of Municipal Waste Is Recycled. https://www.bag.admin.ch/fr/newnsb/EcpWws7Ra2HcYI1J88uP4

Brooks, A. L., Wang, S., & Jambeck, J. R. (2018). The Chinese import ban and its impact on global plastic waste trade. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6010324/

24 Hours. (2025). Thousands of metric tons of Swiss waste are shipped to the other side of the world. https://www.24heures.ch/pollution-plastique-des-dechets-suisses-expedies-a-letranger-par-milliers-de-tonnes-655933222348

Plastics Europe. (2026). The Circular Economy for Plastics. A European Analysis. https://plasticseurope.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Circular-Economy-Report-2026-full-report.pdf