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Does anyone know what the origin of the plastic is? Specifically what percentage of it is from a) what countries and b) what sort of products?
by snissn 8y ago
Does anyone know what the origin of the plastic is? Specifically what percentage of it is from a) what countries and b) what sort of products?
- cultus 8y agoGenerally, poorer countries tend to be bigger sources due to worse sanitation. A huge proportion is from stryofoam or other plastics on fishing nets or buoys. Plastic bags are the single biggest source on land. Plastic bag bans are really important.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- goatsi 8y ago>Around 90 percent of the plastic polluting our oceans comes from just ten rivers, a new study has shown. >Eight of those rivers are in Asia, with the remaining two — the Nile and the Niger — in Africa. https://nypost.com/2017/12/12/10-rivers-are-responsible-for-90-of-the-plastic-in-the-ocean/ https://nypost.com/2017/12/12/10-rivers-are-responsible-for-...
- jessaustin 8y ago(Yangtze, Indus, Yellow, Hai, Nile, Meghna, Pearl, Amur, Niger, Mekong)
- epicureanideal 8y agoSo it seems that filtering the output of these rivers seems like a feasible solution to dramatically reduce ocean plastic. It doesn't sound prohibitively expensive.
- ptoniato 8y agoIt is incorrect: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/42315/do-10-asian-and-african-rivers-generate-90-of-plastic-trash-in-the-ocean https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/42315/do-10-asi...
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Maximus9000 8y agoMostly 10 rivers in developing countries [1] and fishing equipment [2] 1. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stemming-the-plastic-tide-10-rivers-contribute-most-of-the-plastic-in-the-oceans/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stemming-the-plas... 2. https://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/ocean-plastic-made-discarded-fishing-nets/ https://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/ocean-plastic-made-disca...
- ptoniato 8y agoIt is incorrect: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/42315/do-10-asian-and-african-rivers-generate-90-of-plastic-trash-in-the-ocean https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/42315/do-10-asi...
- not_kurt_godel 8y agotl;dr for those too lazy to click: > Approximately 0.8 million tons annually of marine debris, which is 12% of the total debris input into the oceans, originates from land-based sources, and primarily consists of discarded plastic items (user plastic). In highly populated areas, marine debris comes primarily from the land. [...] The 10 top-ranked rivers transport 88–95% of the global load into the sea. While I agree the "90% of plastics in ocean" stat is incorrect, it does seem very relevant to note that "90% of land-originating plastics in ocean" is the actual statistic (land-originating plastics representing about 10-12% of total). Clearly, awareness needs to be raised about ocean-originating plastics. Thanks for bringing attention to this.
- slavik81 8y agoIsn't that the fishing equipment mentioned in the parent comment? If not, what are 'ocean-originating plastics'? Edit: From the Wikipedia article linked by balfirevic: > "Merchant ships expel cargo, sewage, used medical equipment, and other types of waste that contain plastic into the ocean. [....] The largest ocean-based source of plastic pollution is discarded fishing gear (including traps and nets)"
- pkaye 8y agoSome articles I've read recently indicate a lot of the plastics are from fishing nets.