Responsible Alpha

EU Plastics

In a continuation from dashboard earlier this month on US plastics, this week we analyze where and who makes plastics resins in the European Union. By knowing who makes what and where, the European Union can accelerate its transition to sustainable plastics.

Please click on our dashboard and see where and who makes the plastics resins used in the EU.

• You can easily trace a PET bottle back through its production line.
• You can also our filters to determine what companies are producing which plastics, where they are made, and what are the majority of types of plastics that are being produced.

To make this easy to use, we start with the products we use each day, and then show how they are made.

US Plastics

Since 1950, companies have made more than 8.3 billion tons of plastic, the equivalent of 2 billion African elephants. Discarded packaging accounts for 46% (158 million tonnes) of total annual plastic waste generation (Geyer 2020 and UNEP 2021). Most plastic packaging waste comes from household waste. Waste plastic packaging is polluting our oceans, air, and land.

For this dashboard, we sought to visualize the pathway our plastics take from the source to our homes. In our dashboard, you can use the filters to determine things like what companies are producing the plastics and what are the majority of types of plastics being produced. To connect it to your own life, we identified end products that are created by basic, intermediate chemicals, and resin products in plastic production.