Overshoot day reached on 5th September 2025
A new report from Swiss consultancy Earth Action For Impact has pinpointed the annual date at which generated plastic waste surpasses the world’s ability to manage it, with this falling on September 5th 2025. The researchers explain that this can be equated to plastic waste being well managed over the first 248 days of 2025, where it has been collected and then either recycled, incinerated, or deposited in a sanitary landfill[i]. For the remaining 117 days left this year, plastic waste will effectively be mismanaged, ending up as pollution in the environment.
The researchers find that just 12 countries are responsible for 60% of the world’s mismanaged plastic waste in 2025. These are: China, India, Russian, Brazil, Iran, Mexico, Vietnam, Indonesia, Egypt, Pakistan, the United States, and Turkey.
Further, each nation has its own plastic overshoot day, with Eritrea (9th January), Ethiopia (21st January), and Kuwait (23rd January) seeing theirs passed earliest in the year, and New Zealand (19th December), Singapore (20th December), Korea (21st December) passing theirs the latest. The UK has its plastic overshoot day on 9th December for 2025.
Annual plastic overshoot day from 2021-2025
Source: EA For Impact[ii]
Encouragingly, Plastic overshoot day has been moving slightly closer towards the end of the year since the study was first started in 2021, suggesting that global waste management is improving. However, each year there has been a consistent rise in global plastic waste generation, from 205 million tonnes in 2021 to 225 million tonnes in 2025. Therefore, despite an improvement in plastic waste management practices, the overall quantity of mismanaged plastic waste continues to grow.
Talks on a global plastics treaty collapse
EA For Impact’s latest report follows the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5.2) session in Geneva last month, attended by delegates from more than 180 countries who had hoped to tackle the mounting plastics crisis. The talks targeted a first ever global plastics treaty, yet despite almost two weeks of negotiation and two draft texts being presented to delegates, the talks collapsed.
The negotiations reportedly failed due to disagreements between roughly 100 countries seeking caps on plastic production, in contrast with several oil-producing nations who instead wanted the treaty to focus on waste management and recycling.
Sarah Perreard, Co-CEO at Earth Action For Impact commented "The absence of a global plastics treaty doesn't mean the absence of risk for the planet and business. Plastic Overshoot Day is a stark reminder of the plastic crisis we still face." She added: "While multilateral negotiations continue to stall, plastic pollution is actively impacting the business environment through increased state regulation, litigation against companies, and mounting liabilities[iii].
References
[i] EA_POD_report_2025_summary_HD-1.pdf
[ii] Ibid
[iii] Global plastic waste hits 225 million tonnes in 2025 - letsrecycle.com
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