Communities in the Global South are increasingly burning plastic waste in open pits and homes, releasing dangerous toxins and raising alarm among health experts ahead of upcoming United Nations treaty talks.
Sean Mowbray reports for Mongabay.
In short:
- An estimated 30 million metric tons of plastic were burned globally in 2020, often in unregulated settings lacking pollution controls, creating serious health hazards including cancer, respiratory illness, and neurological damage.
- Plastic waste exported from the Global North to the Global South is often mislabeled as recyclable but ends up burned or dumped due to inadequate waste infrastructure in receiving countries.
- With only about 10% of plastic ever recycled, and production projected to rise, experts say that burning plastics — whether in cement kilns, household fires, or industrial sites — is a worsening public health and environmental threat.
Key quote:
“Plastic is a cooking fuel problem, not just a garbage contamination problem.”
— Lisa Thompson, professor at the University of California, San Francisco
Why this matters:
In communities without basic waste collection, plastic becomes both trash and fuel. When ignited, it releases a stew of toxic pollutants including dioxins, furans, and fine particulate matter, linked to cancer, hormonal disruption, and respiratory illness. Women and children are often the most exposed, particularly in homes where plastic replaces wood as cooking fuel. On a global scale, this form of disposal contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution that go underreported in climate models. The practice also reveals deeper injustices: Wealthy nations ship their plastic waste overseas, where it's often burned without safeguards, turning environmental neglect into a form of waste colonialism.
Read more: Wealthy nations burn plastic in poorer countries by rebranding it as fuel
