The Social Cost of Plastic to the United States

Plastic products are everywhere in daily life in the United States. Yet the economic, environmental and health costs of plastic to society reach up to $1.1 trillion per year—and that’s likely an underestimate. 

This report provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of the documented economic costs of plastic to the United States. The authors find that the annual social cost of plastic is estimated to be $436 billion to $1.109 trillion per year. This figure is a conservative estimate and reflects both the limited availability of cost estimates as of July 2025 across the entire plastics life cycle—from fossil fuel extraction and production to use, disposal, and mismanagement—and the uncertainty embedded in the studies that informed this analysis.

Notably, authors identified critical data gaps for costs related to human health impacts, loss of terrestrial ecosystem services, cost of recycling and incinerating plastic waste, and lowered property values. Filling these data gaps will bring us closer to quantifying the true social cost of plastic to the United States.

You might also be interested in:

• Plastic’s Hidden Price Tag: U.S. Faces Up to $1.1 Trillion in Annual Social Costs, Duke Scholars Estimate 
   

For media inquiries, contact the Nicholas Institute communications team at ni-comm@duke.edu.