Just 20 companies are responsible for producing half of all single-use plastics discarded worldwide each year, according to a new report. Big banks and asset managers have been singled out in an effort to reduce the environmental threat.

According to the new Plastic Waste-Makers Index, Exxon Mobil, Dow and China's Sinopec are the largest producers of polymers for single-use plastics, accounting for approximately 16% of international plastic waste.

In a statement, Exxon Mobil Corp. said it "shares society's concern about plastic waste." The company said it is "taking action to address plastic waste" but said the problem requires collective action from "industry, governments, nongovernmental organizations and consumers" alike.

The report, published by Australia's Minderoo Foundation, provides one of the most comprehensive accounting records to date of the companies responsible for the production of single-use plastics, which researchers believe could account for up to 10% of global greenhouse emissions by 2050.

According to the report, nearly all of the single-use plastic produced by these companies - 98% - is made from "'virgin' (fossil-fuel-based) feedstocks" rather than recycled materials.

The study also tracked the money invested in the production of single-use plastics, discovering that 20 institutional asset managers own shares in the parent companies that comprise the foundation's rankings worth nearly $300 billion.

The top three investors are the U.S.-based Vanguard Group, BlackRock and Capital Group, which have an estimated $6 billion invested in the development of single-use plastics, according to the report.

"The trajectories of the climate crisis and the plastic waste crisis are strikingly similar - and increasingly intertwined," former vice president Al Gore said in a statement that accompanied the report.

The report warned the global capacity to produce the materials needed for single-use plastics could increase by more than 30% over the next five years.

According to the report, resolving the problem would necessitate drastic changes from producers, investors and banks. Polymer producers - the building blocks of plastics - should begin disclosing their single-use plastic waste "footprint," and banks and investors should "phase out entirely" any funding for the manufacture of single-use plastics.

"An environmental catastrophe beckons: much of the resulting single-use plastic waste will end up as pollution in developing countries with poor waste management systems," the authors wrote.