Just 20 companies are responsible for producing half of all single-use plastics thrown away around the world every year, and a new report has singled out major banks and asset managers in an attempt to reduce the environmental menace.

The new Plastic Waste-Makers Index ranks ExxonMobile, Dow and China’s Sinopec as the biggest producers of polymers for single-use plastics, generating about 16 per cent of plastic waste worldwide.