The creation, processing, transportation and recycling of plastics is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions[0] and other forms of industrial pollution like water table pollution from landfills.
A conservative estimate[1] puts 10% of all plastics created (from first world countries too) being deposited in the worlds oceans, to disastrous effects[2]. The US economy is one of, if not the largest, contributing factor to the above pacific plastic waste problem.
Even if we're better at recycling plastics than some countries (still pretty terrible at only ~10%) and not letting them leak out into the environment, the sheer volume we consume and dispose of still makes the US and other Western countries by FAR the biggest contributors to plastics pollution.
0: https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/energy/efficiency/industry/technical...
1: http://plastic-pollution.org/
2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch
Yes is the answer...
A lot of the plastic waste from first world countries gets shipped to Asia (very cheap; the container ships are much emptier going back...). China received so much plastic waste that in January it banned imports. Consequently shipments to other Asian countries have skyrocketed. Many of these countries have terrible records for the amount of waste plastic washed into the ocean.
Some UK statistics:
- 475,000 tonnes of household plastic waste is recycled per year
- 800,000 tonnes of plastic waste [i.e. not all household] is exported to China, Vietnam, Thailand, etc.
- Those three countries are in the top 10 for plastic waste reaching the ocean.
Sources:
- https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/uk-plastic-polluti...