Half of global exports of plastics consist of primary forms, but manufactured plastics is booming
Global exports of plastics, millions of metric tons
UN Trade and Development, UNCTADstat.
Data refer to plastic products and products containing plastics as identified in this classification by UN Trade and Development jointly with the Forum on Trade, Environment & the SDGs (TESS) at the Geneva Graduate Institute, based on HS codes.
Plastics exports remained relatively resilient during the COVID 19 pandemic and grew significantly in 2021. Although there was a slowdown in 2022, the growth in plastics exports remained noteworthy compared to 2019 (+7.2 per cent). The main drivers of this growth were manufactured plastics products, which increased from one-fourth of all exports in 2019 to one third by 2022. Primary forms of plastic still constituted the largest share, accounting for 48 per cent of all plastics exports at 164 million tonnes in 2022. In 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this figure was 55 per cent.