Systemic challenges to marine and coastal life: the example of plastics

March 20, 2026

This Tuesday, the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme organized a debate focusing on current sustainability issues facing oceans and coastal areas. The experts at “Océans – Mondes sociaux, mondes vivants” made it clear that the plastic flood choking marine life is not just about garbage on beaches but a systemic crisis spread across extraction, production, consumption and lobbying. Globally we now produce more than 460 million tonnes of plastic a year, a figure that has grown sharply from virtually zero in the 1950s, while only around 9 % of all plastic ever made is recycled. Each year between 8 and 14 million tonnes of plastic leak into the oceans from land, rivers and coasts, continuing to rise as production expands and demand for single-use products persists.

The corporate dimension of this crisis is stark. A 2025 analysis estimates that The Coca‑Cola Company could be using more than 9.1 billion pounds (4.1 million tonnes) of plastic annually by 2030, and as much as 1.3 billion pounds of that could enter the world’s waterways and oceans each year — enough to fill the stomachs of more than 18 million blue whales. That projection is based on current practices and demonstrates how massive corporate plastic footprints feed ocean pollution at scale.

Seen in this light, ocean plastic is not a collection problem alone, but a symptom of a broader system that still prioritises extraction of petroleum to feed plastic production without addressing the root causes.

Is plastic “essential”?

We are often told that plastic is essential, particularly in healthcare where single‑use devices ensure sterility and save lives. Yet even within that context, the extent of single‑use material often exceeds what is strictly necessary. Outside these medical settings, plastic’s “essential” status collapses when we look at its pervasive use in consumer goods, packaging and electronics. Synthetic clothes, mobile phones, single‑serve food containers and disposable bottles are major contributors to microplastic pollution, yet are rarely questioned as fundamentally necessary to life.

Globally there are an estimated 30 million tonnes of plastic packaging produced each year, and a significant share ends up leaking into the environment. According to the Fondation MBRC, more than 8 billion tonnes of plastic now pollute the planet, from ocean trenches to mountain peaks, with only a fraction ever recycled. Less than 10 % of all plastics are recycled globally, so the vast majority enters landfills, incinerators or ecosystems. These figures reflect an addiction to plastic convenience, not objectively measured necessity, especially when safer, reusable alternatives exist for many everyday uses.

By framing plastic as an essential good without examining the legitimacy of each application, society risks locking in material flows that magnify environmental and health risks while limiting innovation and choices.

Industrial power, lobbying and public policy

Large corporations wield enormous influence in shaping how plastic is regulated or not regulated. The Danone yogurt and bottled water brand found itself at the centre of legal challenges in France, where NGOs invoked the duty of vigilance to demand that the company strengthen its assessment of plastic risk and take steps to prevent environmental harm, publish its plastic footprint and engage regularly with civil society. This kind of pressure was needed precisely because traditional reporting and voluntary commitments were insufficient to curb the company’s plastic output.

The dominance of a few companies in global plastic pollution is remarkable. Research tracking branded plastics in the environment has shown that around 56 companies contribute more than half of all branded plastic pollution globally, with Coca‑Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé and Danone among the top polluters. For these corporations plastic production and marketing remain core strategies, even as evidence mounts of the ecological and health impacts of their products.

At the global level, efforts to forge a binding plastics treaty have been stalled by lobbying from petrochemical exporting states and industrial interests, reinforcing a system that resists limits on production and externalises social and environmental costs.

A loss of functionality and performance

Plastic pollution is not limited to visible trash. Plastics break down into tiny pieces called microplastics, now detected in every major aquatic system, in soil and even in human blood and organs. In France, a study by ADEME found that three quarters of soil samples were contaminated with microplastics, showing that pollution extends beyond coastlines and waterways.

Experts estimate that each year between 4 and 15 million tonnes of plastic enter the oceans, and much of this becomes microplastics that persist for centuries. These particles are found in the tissues of fish, shellfish and other marine life that humans consume, posing health risks now being linked by scientists to cancer, infertility, heart disease and developmental issues. The lack of functional recyclability exacerbates this issue: plastics degrade in quality with each recycling cycle, losing strength and performance, and cannot match the durability of materials like glass or metal even in closed‑loop systems, notes France Diplomacy.

This dual problem — extraction of fossil fuels to make plastics and persistent degradation after use — shows that ocean pollution is not simply an end‑of‑life issue but an entire lifecycle problem from petrol to pollution.

Towards legal and social change

Addressing this crisis means more than improving waste collection. It means confronting production and consumption at every level and aligning policy with science, health and social justice. In June 2025 at the United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, 95 countries supported an appeal for a binding global plastics treaty that would mandate reductions in production at the source, not just waste management at the end of life. These negotiations underline that without upstream limits, the flow of plastics into ecosystems will continue unabated, according to Le Monde.

Reducing plastic means promoting alternatives that are truly circular, holding corporations accountable not only for their products but for their entire value chains, and rethinking what society considers “essential”. It also means recognising that plastics have real health costs: according to Le Monde, a major scientific review estimates that plastic pollution already contributes to at least 35,000 premature deaths annually due to exposure to toxic chemicals in production and disposal, with economic damages estimated at more than $1.5 trillion each year.

The ocean plastic crisis is not a remote environmental problem but a mirror of our economic and cultural choices. Confronting it demands a collective shift, from extraction and production to consumption and regulation, so that the living systems we depend on are protected and respected.

CPM