Plastic Pollution Rises 21% Since 2020 Despite Policy Efforts, CDP Analysis Warns

Global plastic pollution has increased by 21% since 2020 despite rising awareness and policy interventions, according to the 2025 Breaking the Plastic Wave report, with CDP highlighting transparency and disclosure as essential to reversing the trend. The report finds that annual plastic pollution can be reduced by 83% by 2040 through a total system transformation, but only if comprehensive data disclosure across the plastic value chain is mandated and acted upon.

Without action, annual plastic pollution is projected to more than double from 130 million to 280 million metric tons by 2040, equivalent to nearly one garbage truck of waste per second. Plastic production is forecast to grow by 52% — nearly twice the pace of projected waste management capacity expansion. Health impacts from plastic production and waste management are expected to increase by 75% by 2040, disproportionately affecting vulnerable communities. If plastic production were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, behind only China and the United States.

CDP's Scaling Plastics Disclosure initiative — run in partnership with The Pew Charitable Trusts, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Minderoo Foundation, and WWF — has driven a 44% increase in corporate plastics disclosure between 2023 and 2025, with 4,262 companies reporting plastic risks and impacts in 2025. Over 16,000 chemicals used in plastic products are potentially harmful to human health, yet data is lacking for most of them. CDP's plastics questionnaire covers the full lifecycle — from value chain mapping through to end-of-life waste management — enabling companies to assess risks, impacts, and dependencies in an integrated way.

The report identifies return-and-refill-based reuse systems as representing US$570 billion in annual private sector spending opportunity by 2040, alongside the creation of 8.6 million additional jobs globally. With the United Nations Global Plastics Treaty failing to reach consensus, voluntary disclosure is the primary mechanism sustaining progress toward a circular economy transition. CDP argues that companies disclosing through its platform help redirect financial flows needed for the circular transition, while providing policymakers with the evidence base required to design effective regulations.

Key figure — 44% increase in corporate plastics disclosure through CDP between 2023 and 2025