Will Asia confront production or compromise the future?

The world is negotiating a plastics treaty, but behind the talk of pollution and cleanup lies a deeper battle over production cuts.

- DHARMESH SHAH Senior Campaigner (Plastics Treaty), Centre for International Environmental Law

At stake is whether governments will confront the fossil-fuelled expansion of plastic, or let the treaty become a glorified waste management plan. Nowhere is this tension more visible than in Asia, where countries are caught between rising petrochemical ambitions and the mounting toll of plastic pollution. This regional surge in plastic production is unfolding alongside mounting public concern over waste imports, environmental degradation, and global calls for binding production limits.

China alone accounts for 32 per cent of global plastic production, with a polymer capacity exceeding 130 million tonne (MT) per year. The country is expected to account for almost 29 pc of the 40 pc of the global petrochemical capacity addition projected by 2030. India, meanwhile, produced 13.7 MT of polymers in FY2022-23 and imported 3.9 MT while preparing to double its petrochemical capacity by 2030 under an aggressive industrial policy. Thailand, with a capacity of ~11 MT per year, exported $7.2 billion worth of plastics in 2022 and plans to enforce a ban on plastic waste imports starting this year, having imported over 1.1 MT of waste between 2018 and 2021. South Korean manufacturers, with a production base of ~20 MT/year, have seen their revenues shrink as self-sufficiency rose in their key market, China.

Indonesia, currently producing 7 MT of polymers a year, is undergoing a petrochemical boom, with new projects expected to raise capacity to over 9 MT/year by 2029, even as it received ~190,000 tonnes of plastic waste in 2024. Malaysia, producing ~2.5-3 MT per year, exported $4 billion worth of plastic goods in 2022 and it remains the world's second-largest importer of plastic waste from the EU.