Recycling cannot solve the globe’s plastic crisis, campaigners have warned, as today marks the moment this year ‘the world wastes more plastic than it can handle’.
A damning new report – seen exclusively by Metro – has been published for 2026’s Plastic Overshoot Day: the point at which humanity’s plastic waste exceeds the world’s capacity to manage it.
The symbolic milestone means that 72 million tonnes of hazardous chemicals will leak into the environment this year, experts at Earth Action have predicted.
They claim the UK alone will mismanage over 317,000 tonnes of plastic waste and export over 516,000 tonnes in 2026, with 46,000 tonnes of microplastic finding their way into the UK’s waterways.
Sarah Perreard, Co-founder of Earth Action: ‘Consider this date a warning shot.
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‘Despite improvements in handling plastic waste, we are still losing, the world is making it faster than any country’s recycling system can cope with.
‘The impact of the exponential growth of waste on the environment, and human health, cannot be ignored.’
Plastic Overshoot Day represents the annual gap between the amount of plastic waste we produce and the amount we can properly manage into a date on the calendar.
In 2026 will see the world mismanage 72 million tonnes of plastic waste, up from 69 million tonnes in 2021, Earth Action have warned in their yearly report.
That is 31.6% of the total plastic waste being generated this year, or 116 days of 2026.
Earth Action argue that this mismanaged waste will be ‘left uncollected or dumped, and from there leaks into soil, rivers and the ocean’.
Sian Sutherland, co-founer of Plastic Planet, told Metro: ‘We have spent decades pretending recycling can solve the plastic crisis. It can’t.
(Picture: Maureen McLean/Shutterstock)
‘Plastic production has created a global chemical crisis that respects no borders: chemicals and microplastics released from plastic move through our environment, our food and ultimately our bodies.
‘Plastic can contain more than 16,000 chemicals. Over 4,000 are already known to be hazardous and more than 10,000 still lack adequate hazard data.
‘That is not a material we should be producing at ever-greater scale, and recycling only acts to keep those chemicals in circulation.’
Plastic Overshoot Day was two days earlier last year, on September 4, and is even later compared to August 28 in 2021.
This means the proportion of the world’s plastic waste being mismanaged has fallen.
However Earth Action stress that the total amount of global plastic waste is still rising, from 202 million tonnes in 2021 to almost 227 million tonnes this year.
The UK-specific Overshoot Day is not until December 3, meaning that Britain is far better able to manage its own plastic waste compared to the world as a whole.
However the Earth Action report criticises the UK, alongside the US, France and Germany, as ‘Overloaders’.
These are rich countries they claim generate close to three times the global average of plastic waste per person a year.
The report also says that the UK will be responsible for releasing 46,000 tonnes of microplastics into the waterways in 2026.
Dr Roz Savage MP, Liberal Democrat MP for South Cotswolds, said the UK should be more proactive in cracking down on plastic waste.
He told Metro: ‘I have spent months alone at sea, and there is nowhere out there now that our rubbish hasn’t reached. But this is no longer only an ocean story.
‘The same plastic is in the food we eat, the air we breathe and our own bodies, and the world is producing it faster than anyone can deal with it. Plastic Overshoot Day is yet another stark reminder of the urgency of this issue.
‘Britain should be leading on this rather than waiting for others to move.
‘For too long we have waited for effective government action as the evidence on the impact of plastic pollution has mounted; protecting our environment and protecting our health are the same task, the time for change is now.’
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs said they were ‘determined to end our throwaway society and tackle the plastic waste polluting our streets, countryside and oceans’.
The government statement added: ‘We are already taking action to cut plastic waste by making producers pay for the packaging they put on the market and encouraging them to use more recyclable materials.
‘We have also banned wet wipes containing plastic and made recycling easier for households across England.’
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