About half is for single-use items and less than 10 per cent is recycled, resulting in massive environmental pollution.
With 11 million tonnes of plastic waste entering Earth's oceans annually, the contamination of ecosystems with microscopic particles, or microplastics, has also escalated alarmingly.
How to curb such a disaster is surely a distant fix.
Yet Australian researchers have hit upon a surprisingly simple and effective place to start.
While a single load of laundry containing synthetic clothes can release thousands of plastic microfibres into our waterways, a basic filter fitted to household washing machines can apparently capture them.
Lab tests on the South Australian-made device reveal it as a useful way to arrest the offending particles.
"Polyester fibres are among the most common microplastics polluting our environment," says Flinders University marine biologist Anastasiia Snigirova.
"Their main source is the textiles we wash every day in households and commercial laundries.
"Our initial trials showed a dramatic reduction of fibres in wash water, demonstrating the strong potential of this technology."
Microplastics are plastic particles less than 5mm wide and break down further to nanoparticles.
The testing confirmed the Good Catch filter's ability to remove nanoparticles up to 20 micrometres in size - invisible to the naked eye - as well as larger microplastic pieces.
Further analysis found a large number of particles between 5mm and 20 micrometres in a regular wash, with the filter also able to catch many of these polyester and cellulose fibres.
The research comes as European regulators legislate for new washing machines to include similar filters by law.
Australia is meanwhile taking a range of steps under the National Plastics Plan to reduce, recycle and re-use plastic products.
Environmental company The Goodside Project produces the Good Catch filters in Adelaide, with founder Karen Jones Hauser keen to do more.
To this end, she has partnered with another startup, Alkany, developing biotechnology that uses bacteria to break down synthetic polymers into compost and biogas.
According to its chief scientist David Thompson, reducing plastic waste biologically creates multiple re-use opportunities rather than sending plastics to landfill or incineration.
It's been known for some time that degrading plastic is accumulating in South Australian coastal areas including the Spencer and St Vincent gulfs, which cover vital marine park areas and commercial fisheries.
A previous Flinders University study of microplastics flowing into the region from Adelaide's waterways found fibres were the main pollution cause.
Microplastics were present in all eight streams tested.
Fibres made up 72 per cent of the waste, plastic fragments 17 per cent and plastic beads 8 per cent.
Flinders' latest project is focused on fragmentation of plastics down to a very small scale, below 1 mm.
With Australian Research Council funding, it is developing a way to boost nanoplastic capture on cellulose filters using a plasma polymer coating.
Nearly two-thirds of plastic waste comes from products with lifetimes of under five years, with 40 per cent derived from packaging, 12 per cent from consumer goods and 11 per cent from clothing and textiles.
More than half the plastics ever made have been created since 2000 and on the current trajectory, global production is expected to double by 2050.
Plastics also account for 3.4 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions.
25°C