The National Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, earlier this month, reported on a study looking at plastic waste inputs from land into ocean. This concluded that something betwen 4.8M and 12.7M tonnes of 'mismanaged plastic' enters the ocean annually (hence my median figure of 8Mt in the title).
Needless to say the biggest culprit is China - responsible for some 28% of the material.
The toxic impact of marine plastic is well documented and with the annual input increasing year-on-year (extrapolation to 2025 suggests a burden by then of about 16Mt) there is an urgent need for better management practices.
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