Report: Governments funneled $80 billion into virgin plastics in 2024. The bill? Ours.

By: Oluwaseun M. Lawal

Picture the year’s end: beaches swept, bins overflowing, a quiet cough in the clinic. Then a receipt you never saw—$80 billion in public cash nudging industry to make more brand‑new plastic. That’s what Eunomia, with the Quaker UN Office and support from Minderoo Foundation, found.

We fund the start of the pipeline, then pay for the fallout. Twice. Researchers say if primary polymer subsidies go, production incentives cool, pollution eases, health systems breathe a little, and prices for everyday goods barely move. There’s 70 economies in the sample and seven common resins, so this isn’t some edge case.

Keep the current course and the tab rockets past $150 billion by 2050. Which is, honestly, a lot. As delegates in Geneva close the final week of Global Plastics Treaty talks, the ask lands simple—shift the money. Away from virgin feedstocks. Toward safer materials and real circular systems. Otherwise the bill keep growing, slow but steady, and we all carry it.