The Pasig River in the Philippines alone accounts for 6.4% of global river plastics. However, rapid growth in global plastic production was not realized until the 1950s. Ocean. Recycled plastic waste is now a product within the global commodity market it is sold and traded across the world. Eriksen, M. et al. (2014) estimated that there was approximately 269,000 tonnes of plastic in surface waters across the world.13. Fourth, distance matters: the largest emitting rivers had cities nearby and were also very close to the coast. Inadequately managed waste has high risk of polluting rivers and oceans. This is shown by particle size in terms of mass (left) and particle count (right). Galloway, T. S., Cole, M., & Lewis, C. (2017). Evidence of impacts of reduced food consumption include: Many organisms do not exhibit changes in feeding after microplastic ingestion. Collectively, China and Hong Kong have imported 72.4 percent of global traded plastic waste (with most imports to Hong Kong eventually reaching China).67, This came to an end in 2017. The study by Lebreton, Egger and Slat challenges the previous hypotheses that plastics in the surface ocean have a very short lifetime, quickly degrade into microplastics and sink to greater depths. Jabeen, K., Su, L., Li, J., Yang, D., Tong, C., Mu, J., & Shi, H. (2017). (2016)26 reviews the findings of peer-reviewed documentation of the impacts of marine plastic debris on animal life; the results of this study are presented in this table.27. In some cases, energy recovery from the incineration process is possible. If we currently pollute our oceans with millions of tonnes of plastic each year, we must have released tens of millions of tonnes in recent decades. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768, http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/7/e1700782, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969716310154, http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/i0620e/i0620e00.htm, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22939-w, More than 1000 rivers account for 80% of global riverine plastic emissions into the ocean, http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0111913, Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean, Plastic pollution in the worlds oceans: more than 5 trillion plastic pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at sea, Bottles, bags, ropes and toothbrushes: the struggle to track ocean plastics, A global mass budget for positively buoyant macroplastic debris in the ocean, The deep sea is a major sink for microplastic debris, https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-marine-010816-060409, https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1890/14-2070.1, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-16510-3_4, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X14008571, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0116, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X13002501, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X16305380, http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155063, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25563688, https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.5b04026, https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/43097705.pdf, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468584417300235, https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-16510-3_13, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749116323910, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749116311666, https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.5b01090, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749114002425, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19440049.2013.843025, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19440049.2014.945099, https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.5b03163, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141113615300659, https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es400931b, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-09128-x, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045653517311724, http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/6/eaat0131, A slide-deck summary of global plastics is. Of course, not all of our plastic waste ends up in the ocean, most ends up in landfills: its estimated that the share of global plastic waste that enters the ocean is around 3%.17 In 2010 the year for which we have the latest estimates that was around 8 million tonnes.18, Most of the plastic materials we produce are less dense than water and should therefore float at the ocean surface. Available at:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22939-w. Foekema, E. M., De Gruijter, C., Mergia, M. T., van Franeker, J. The reported land area of Spain is approximately 500,000 square kilometres, and Alaska is an estimated 1.5 million square kilometres. 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You may find the answer to additional questions on this topic there. Levels of microplastic ingestion are currently unknown. plastics recycling canada bottles reaches record rate water containers orem Available at:http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/6/eaat0131. In the chart we see the share of global plastic waste that is discarded, recycled or incinerated from 1980 through to 2015. Environmental Science & Technology,47(15), 8818-8824. In the chart we see the quantity of plastic waste China had to manage over the period from 2010 to 2016. This model uses data on global plastic production, emissions into the ocean by plastic type and age, and transport and degradation rates to map not only the amount of plastic in different environments in the ocean, but also its age. The distribution and accumulation of ocean plastics is strongly influenced by oceanic surface currents and wind patterns. Ingestion of plastic can occur unintentionally, intentionally, or indirectly through the ingestion of prey species containing plastic. InMarine Anthropogenic Litter(pp. Wright, S., Rowe, D., Thompson, R. C. & Galloway, T. S. Microplastic ingestion decreases energy reserves in marine worms. (2013). It may be the case that microplastics simply pass straight through the gastrointestinal tract without impact or interaction.60 A study of North Sea fish, for example, revealed that 80 percent of fish with detected microplastics contained only one particle this suggests that following ingestion, plastic does not persist for long periods of time.61 Concentrations in mussels, in contrast, can be significantly higher. Primary plastic production by polymer type can be found here. PLoS ONE 11, e0155063 (2016). (2014). Plastic is a unique material with many benefits: its cheap, versatile, lightweight, and resistant. Available at:http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0111913. exporting countries can use this as an opportunity to improve domestic recycled infrastructure and generate internal markets; if recycling infrastructure is lacking, this provides further incentive for countries to reduce primary plastic production (and create more circular material models) to reduce the quantity of waste which needs to be handled; it fundamentally changes the nature of global plastic trade, representing an opportunity to share and promote best practices of waste management, and harmonize technical standards on waste protocols; some other countries may attempt to become a key plastic importer in place of China; one challenge is that many countries do not yet have sufficient waste management infrastructure to handle recycled waste imports; countries considering importing significant quantities of plastic waste could consider an import tax specifically aimed at funding the development of sufficient infrastructure to handle such waste. Geyer, R., Jambeck, J. R., & Law, K. L. (2017). Entanglements most commonly involve plastic rope and netting30 and abandoned fishing gear.31 However, entanglement by other plastics such as packaging have also been recorded. In the case of microplastics (particles smaller than 4.75 millimeter in diameter), the key concern is ingestion. Cities such as Jakarta in Indonesia and Manila in the Philippines are drained by relatively small rivers but account for a large share of plastic emissions. In: Bergmann M., Gutow L., Klages M. (eds) Marine Anthropogenic Litter. Available at:https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1890/14-2070.1. Ingestion of plastic pollutants by marine birds. We have many decades of legacy waste to contend with. Ogonowski, M., Schr, C., Jarsn, . Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made. When citing this entry, please also cite the underlying data sources. Available at:https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-marine-010816-060409. Biomagnification (sometimes termed bioamplification or biological magnification), is the increasing concentration of a substance in the tissues of organisms at successively higher levels in a food chain. As main meal for sperm whales: plastics debris. The trade-offs between plastics and substitutes (or complete bans) are therefore complex and could create negative knock-on impacts on the environment. Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection, Announcement of releasing the Catalogues of Imported Wastes Management, (Announcement no. global primary production of plastic was 270 million tonnes; global plastic waste was 275 million tonnes it did exceed annual primary production through wastage of plastic from previous years; plastic waste generated in coastal regions is most at risk of entering the oceans; in 2010 coastal plastic waste generated within 50 kilometres of the coastline amounted to 99.5 million tonnes; only plastic waste which is improperly managed (mismanaged) is at significant risk of leakage to the environment; in 2010 this amounted to 31.9 million tonnes; of this, 8 million tonnes 3% of global annual plastics waste entered the ocean (through multiple outlets, including rivers); Plastics in the oceans surface waters is several orders of magnitude lower than annual ocean plastic inputs. To tackle plastic pollution we need to know what rivers these plastics are coming from. Plastic pollution is having a negative impact on our oceans and wildlife health, High-income countries generate more plastic waste per person. In the visualization I summarized their results. But once it is there, where does it go? The definitions of key terms used in this entry are as follows: Discarded: waste that is not recycled or incinerated; this includes waste that goes to landfill (closed or open), is littered, or lost to the natural environment. Available at:http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/7/e1700782. In the chart we see the per capita rate of plastic waste generation, measured in kilograms per person per day. slower metabolic rate and survival in Asian green mussels, reduced reproducibility and survival in copepods, reduced growth and development of langoustine, reduced energy stores in shore crabs and lugworms. This is our main data entry on plastics, with a particular focus on its pollution of the environment. Ingested plastic transfers hazardous chemicals to fish and induces hepatic stress. This also matters for how we solve the problem of ocean pollution. Which countries emit the most plastic into the oceans? This overview is summarized in the figure.2. Available at:http://oro.open.ac.uk/47539/. PLOS ONE 7:e32254, Oliveira M, Ribeiro A, Hylland K, Guilhermino L. 2013. The accumulation of a large number of particles tends to result from the breakdown of larger plastics this results in an accumulation of plastic particles for a given mass. One possibility is that it is due to imprecise measurement: we might either grossly overestimate the amount of plastic waste we release into the ocean, or underestimate the amount floating in the surface ocean. In 2010, it implemented its Green Fence program a temporary restriction for plastic imports with significantly less contamination. Most of the worlds largest emitting rivers are in Asia, with some also in East Africa and the Caribbean. Brooks, A. L., Wang, S., & Jambeck, J. R. (2018). Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health,1, 17-23. They therefore do not represent quantities of plastic at risk of loss to the ocean or other waterways. The most well-known example of large plastic accumulations in surface waters is the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). This plastic waste will have to be handled domestically or exported to another country. Environmental Science & Technology,49(15), 8932-8947. If we extrapolate historical trends through to 2050 as can be seen in thechart here by 2050, incineration rates would increase to 50 percent; recycling to 44 percent; and discarded waste would fall to 6 percent. Plastic pollution in the worlds oceans: more than 5 trillion plastic pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at sea. From 1980 for incineration, and 1990 for recycling, rates increased on average by about 0.7 percent per year.4. NOAA-TM-NMFS-SWFC-54. Available at:http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/i0620e/i0620e00.htm. Firstly, is that the majority of ocean plastics are washed, buried and resurface along our shorelines. Much of the macroplastics in our shorelines is from the past 15 years, but still a significant amount is older suggesting it can persist for several decades without breaking down. Our articles and data visualizations rely on work from many different people and organizations. Second, the largest emitters tend to have cities nearby: this means there are a lot of paved surfaces where both water and plastic can drain into river outlets. The short downturn in annual production in 2009 and 2010 was predominantly the result of the 2008 global financial crisis a similar dent is seen across several metrics of resource production and consumption, including energy. The inclusive event provides an opportunity to celebrate the, UNEP Terms of Use PrivacyReport Project Concern Report Scam Contact Us. Yet it emits 100 times as much plastic to the ocean each year (200 to 300 tonnes versus only 3 to 5 tonnes). Rist, S. E. et al. There are a few exceptions: common goby exposure to polyethylene andpyrene; Asian green mussels exposed to polyvinylchloride (PVC); and Daphnia magnaneonates exposed topolyethylene40,41,42. Eriksen, M., Lebreton, L. C., Carson, H. S., Thiel, M., Moore, C. J., Borerro, J. C., & Reisser, J. First, plastic pollution is dominant where the local waste management practices are poor.