We consider four different scenarios for the vertical behaviour of plastic particles in the ocean. In all four scenarios, vertical diffusion due to turbulence is included, using a Markov-0 random walk model18 forced by the PSY4 vertical diffusivity fields. The probability that mismanaged plastic waste enters the ocean varies a lot across the world, depending on factors such as the location and length of river systems, proximity to coastlines, terrain, and precipitation patterns. However, rapid growth in global plastic production didn’t happen until the 1950s. Over the next 70 years, however, annual production of plastics has increased nearly 230-fold to 460 million tonnes in 2019. She said that a major concern is what happens with breakdown products, such as microplastics and chemical additives, which are known to be toxic and hazardous to human and wildlife health and ecosystems.

“This is a chance to help us protect delicate beaches from plastic waste.” “This is incredibly exciting, as up to now we have not had a tool for detecting plastics in coastal environments from space.” Millions of animals are killed by plastics every year, from birds to fish to other marine organisms. Nearly 2,100 species, including endangered ones, are known to have been affected by plastics. As the number one generator of plastic waste, the U.S. has the responsibility to act now and be a leader when it comes to tackling plastic pollution. Tell the Biden Administration that there is no time to waste when tackling the plastic crisis. It’s thanks to supporters like you that we’re able to tackle this problem from the local to the international level, working to stop plastics from reaching our ocean at all points along the pollution pipeline.

The world’s nations agree to fix the plastic waste crisis

Even when we multiply by population (giving us total plastic waste generation), rich countries generate a lot. The UK, for example, generates twice as much plastic waste as the Philippines. In the chart we see the breakdown of global plastic inputs to the ocean by region. If you want to explore the plastic inputs from each of the world’s rivers, the Ocean Cleanup Project provides a beautiful interactive map where you can see this in more detail. The Pasig River in the Philippines alone accounts for 6.4% of global river plastics.

• Globally, just 9% of plastic is successfully recycled, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
• The solution is to prevent plastic waste from entering rivers and seas in the first place, many scientists and conservationists say.
• In 1935 Île de France and Paris were joined by a new mate, the new superliner Normandie.
• Marine micro plastic is a sponge for PCBs and has killed or displaced phytoplankton as the beginning of the oceans food chain.
• The Pasig River in the Philippines alone accounts for 6.4% of global river plastics.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Observational data across different marine reservoirs used to assimilate into the numerical model.

Dr. Kim Warner, Senior Scientist at Oceana, coauthored a report in 2020 that looked at all the data available on marine mammals and sea turtles in U.S. waters that have been impacted by plastic. The first synthetic plastic – Bakelite – was produced in 1907, marking the beginning of the global plastics industry. Yan believes that scientists may eventually develop an underwater drone that can identify macroplastics and gather them from the ocean bottom. However, this would be expensive because of the need to lower the drones, pick up the macroplastics and bring them to shore, and possibly the need for trained pilots to operate the drones. Wasser 3.0, a German company, uses a special non-toxic compound which, when circulated in a vortex, pulls microplastics into popcorn-like clumps that can then be collected.

This probability is much higher in countries such as the Philippines (a 7% probability); Malaysia (4.4%); and Sri Lanka (3.4%) than China (0.2%) or India (0.5%). This is why smaller rivers in these countries play a larger role than we might assume. But, importantly, the latest research suggests that smaller rivers play a much larger role than previously thought. In the chart we see the comparison of the latest research (in red) with the two earlier studies which mapped global riverine inputs. This chart shows how many of the top-emitting rivers (on the x-axis) make up a given percentage of plastic inputs (y-axis). Note that the number of rivers on the x-axis is given on a logarithmic scale. If we want to tackle plastic pollution we need to stop it from entering the ocean from our rivers.

Patrick is a Container Terminal executive with over 25 years of experience in the port and maritime business. In Nautical College, he started coastal rowing thanks to his competitive streak, played baseball and ran marathons. He won a bronze medal at the Pilot Gig Rowing World Championship’s in the Isles of Scilly, UK in 2000. According to reports, 8 billion kilos of plastic are dumped into the ocean every year, that’s a staggering 22,000,000 kilos of plastic every day; 900,000 kilos of plastic per hour; the equivalent of 60 container loads each weighing 15 tons. The final qualification spots are now to be confirmed by the respective NOCs, still being allocated according to the document here.

This is especially true for visual observations (the main source of data for beaches38,39) as the lower detection limit probably varies per person. Measuring the total mass of items is more reliable in those cases as most of the plastic mass in the marine environment is contained in the larger particle sizes, which are more easily observed. Plastic pollution and marine litter have emerged as pressing environmental challenges of our time, impacting the health of our ocean and ecosystems. With the relentless production and disposal of plastic materials, our planet has become a dumping ground for an alarming array of plastic debris. From microplastics, to larger plastic items like bottles and bags, these pollutants pose a threat to marine life, the food chain, human health and the delicate balance of our planet’s aquatic environments. We estimate that the plastic input into the marine environment is probably still growing around 4% per year. Previous studies42 found no conclusive temporal trends regarding the amount of plastic litter in the marine environment.

What Ocean Plastic Is – And What it’s Perhaps not

In honour of its wartime performance, the Southern Railway company named one of Ocean Plastic its locomotives French Line CGT. In 1935 Île de France and Paris were joined by a new mate, the new superliner Normandie. With these three ships the CGT could boast of having the largest, fastest, and most luxurious ships traveling the north Atlantic. On June 22, 1927 Île de France traveled from Le Havre for its maiden voyage to New York. Upon its arrival in New York it received great attention from the American media and thousands of people crowded the docks just to see the new ship. After her sea trials, Île de France traveled to her home port of Le Havre on June 5, 1927. The novelty of Art Deco aboard a ship was an immediate sensation and the reaction of the visiting press would be evident by favorable reviews the next week.

The concentration of plastics in the oceans has increased from 16 trillion pieces in 2005, data suggests. While it’s tough to say exactly how much plastic is in the ocean, scientists think about 8 million metric tons of plastic entered the ocean in 2010. That’s the weight of nearly 90 aircraft carriers, and the problem continues to grow. IUCN’s research on these economic impacts demonstrates examples and possible solutions. Plastic is a synthetic, organic polymer made from fossil fuels, such as gas and petroleum. Over 460 million metric tons of plastic are produced every year, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.

To generate the transition matrices, we advect virtual plastic particles three dimensionally in the global ocean using OceanParcels49, with the Mercator Ocean PSY4 analysis product at 1/12° resolution as forcing50. This forcing product has been assimilated with various data sources (including altimetry, sea surface temperature, salinity and temperature vertical profile data) and includes freshwater fluxes51. Particles are released horizontally on a hexagonal grid with an average hexagon edge length of 22 km and vertically at 12 logarithmically spaced depth layers between 0.5 m and 5,000 m. Transport is resolved for six different particle sizes (diameter) using an increment of a factor 4 (0.1 mm, 0.4 mm, 1.6 mm, 6.4 mm, 26 mm, 102 mm). These particles experience a varying amount of influence from vertical turbulent mixing, which can affect their horizontal dispersion52.

There are currently 75 to 199 million tons of plastic polluting our oceans, according to the World Economic Forum. This is a result of humans recycling only nine percent of plastic waste and dumping 10 million tons of it into the seas each year. Third – and this is where this recent research improves our understanding – is the probability that this mismanaged plastic waste reaches river networks, and then the ocean. The climate, terrain, land use, and distances within river basins affect the probability that mismanaged plastic waste is emitted to the ocean. The authors of the study illustrate the importance of the additional climate, basin terrain, and proximity factors with a real-life example.