Largest producer of plastic (industry)

Across all sectors, 407 million tonnes (449 million US tons) of primary plastic (i.e., plastic made from virgin material) was created worldwide in the year 2015. Of that, the packaging industry accounted for the largest proportion, with an estimated 146 million tonnes (161 million US tons) of new plastic packaging manufactured in that 12-month period, according to a study published in Science Advances on 19 July 2017.

The next largest plastic-producing industrial sectors in 2015 were construction & building (65 million tonnes; 72 million US tons) and textiles (59 million tonnes; 65 million US tons).

A total of 302 million tonnes (333 million US tons) of waste plastic was generated in 2015. Packaging also accounted for the greatest proportion of that, estimated at 141 million tonnes (155 million US tons) - a staggering 96.5% of the amount produced by that industry in the same period.

The same research estimates that since 1950, when large-scale plastic manufacture began, up to 2015 that around 8.3 billion tonnes (9.15 billion US tons) of virgin plastic have been produced.

The study was a collaboration between the University of California, University of Georgia and the Sea Education Association (all USA), led by Professor Roland Geyer of the University of California, Santa Barbara.