Today’s children belong to 'Generation Plastic'. Exposed to plastic before they are even born, they will face soaring production and plastic waste through their childhood years. Children have never been as surrounded by plastics as they are today, yet our understanding of the lifelong and intergenerational impacts of early exposure to plastics lags behind. Without stronger policies, plastics production and use are projected to rise 70 per cent from 2020 to 2040, while mismanaged plastic waste and leakage into the environment will increase by around 50 per cent. Global production of plastic is far from circular, with only about 21 per cent designed to be recyclable.
Common children’s products contain hazardous plastic-associated chemicals – such as phthalates, bisphenols, PFAS, flame retardants, styrene, PVC, crumb tyre infill on playgrounds, and more. Children who live in communities with open dumping and burning of plastic waste face concentrated risks from plastics, amplified by social inequalities. Plastic production can pollute nearby ‘fenceline’ communities with toxic petrochemicals. And children’s dependence on caregivers makes them especially vulnerable when plastic waste impacts families’ livelihoods.
Generation Plastic will provide an overview of how plastics are impacting children’s health and future, share efforts of children and youth around the world to tackle plastics, and recommended actions to better protect children from its harms.
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