Plastic combustion creating mounting dangers for public wellbeing, according to professionals
The open burning of plastic waste in developing countries is a widespread and growing public health and environmental crisis. This practice, often driven by a lack of access to proper waste disposal services, poverty, and the high volume of cheap plastic products entering these communities, is causing severe health risks and significant environmental damage.
Public Health Impacts
Burning plastic releases toxic pollutants, including carcinogens, particulate matter, persistent organic pollutants (like dioxins and furans), heavy metals, and greenhouse gases. Exposure to these pollutants can lead to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, birth defects, cancers, and disruptions to endocrine, reproductive, and neurological systems. Marginalized and poor communities bear much of this health burden.
In Guatemala, for instance, research found that open burning contributes as much as 24% of the black carbon, 23.6% of PM2.5 fine particulates, and 2.4% of CO2 to the nation's total emissions. A 2025 paper by Bowyer found increased risk of respiratory issues among children living near waste incineration sites.
Environmental Consequences
Plastic burning also has substantial environmental consequences. It emits black carbon, a short-lived climate pollutant with significant warming potential, contributes to local air pollution, and facilitates plastic waste leakage into ecosystems, including oceans via rivers—especially in regions with vulnerable geographical features like Southeast Asia.
The escalating volume of mismanaged plastic waste in developing regions exacerbates these problems, even as some waste management infrastructure slightly improves. For example, in Indonesia, cheap imported plastic is burned as fuel to produce tofu by businesses and to provide energy by Indonesia's limestone industry. Studies have found contaminated eggs near plastic and waste burning sites in Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria.
Addressing the Issue
Experts argue that the issue of plastic burning by communities, businesses, and industry should be addressed at the upcoming UN plastics treaty summit in Geneva. A survey of 1,500 households in Guatemala found that 60% of those questioned use waste and plastics in household cooking stoves as fuel, with women and young girls being among the primary respondents.
Tiwonge Mzumara-Gawa, an ecologist and environmental advocate, warns that the widespread open burning of plastics is taking an increasingly heavy public health and environmental toll. "Indoor air pollution from burning plastics leads to elevated risks of respiratory infections, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and other life-threatening conditions," she says.
In many Malawi communities and poorer nations worldwide, there is no waste collection or proper disposal, leading to the burning of plastic waste in pits beside homes. The burning of plastic releases numerous dangerous toxins and fine particulate matter, contributing to millions of air pollution deaths annually.
In conclusion, it is crucial for nations to agree to limit plastic production and, wherever possible, ban the worst toxic components, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polystyrene. Approximately 2 billion people worldwide lack access to waste collection services, and the only solution for poorer, underserved neighborhoods is to burn plastic waste. This practice must be addressed urgently to protect public health and the environment.
- Addressing the sustainability issues related to plastic waste, particularly in developing countries, calls for the inclusion of the burning of plastics by communities, businesses, and industry in the upcoming UN plastics treaty summit in Geneva.
- The environmental science community is increasingly concerned about the health-and-wellness implications of the open burning of plastics, as the practice releases dangerous toxins and contributes to air pollution, leading to significant environmental damage and severe health risks.
- In the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), efforts to mitigate climate change and improve health-and-wellness need to address the environmental harm caused by the burning of plastics, as it emits greenhouse gases, generates black carbon, and pollutes the environment, exacerbating medical-conditions like respiratory diseases.
