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800 pounds? China pumps 4,800,000,000 pounds (2.4 million tons) of plastic into the ocean each year. No, western countries are not perfect. Yes, the vast major
by forrestthewoods 7y ago
800 pounds? China pumps 4,800,000,000 pounds (2.4 million tons) of plastic into the ocean each year.
No, western countries are not perfect. Yes, the vast majority of ocean waste comes from poor, non-Western countries. The US, 3rd largest country by population, is #20 for ocean pollution. China alone produces 1/3 of all ocean waste.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/world-s-oceans-clogged-by-millions-of-tons-of-plastic-trash/?redirect=1 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/world-s-oceans-cl...
- b_tterc_p 7y agoA lot of that was probably imported western trash. In terms of trash production I would guess US is way higher. Just a guess though.
- Xylakant 7y agoWestern countries export most of their plastic waste to the countries named in the article. Substantial amounts of the plastics China spills into the ocean are ours, exported there for “recycling”
- azinman2 7y agoBut who puts them into the water?
- Xylakant 7y agoWe ship our low grade plastic waste there well knowing what will happen with it.
- manigandham 7y agoWhy does that matter? The issue is that they claim to be recycling and then just dump it in the ocean instead.
- gmiller123456 7y agoThat's quite disingenuous to what's really happening. The companies in the US claiming their "recycling" service are probably well aware of what's going on, and China probably isn't making any promises that they're recycling anything. The US companies accept money for "recycling" material, maybe cut off the power cord for reuse, then pay China to take the rest as junk. And it's a given that if you're transporting garbage to a landfill, some of it isn't going to make it that far and will eventually end up in the ocean. Maybe they are just dumping it as you say, but just the fact that some of it ends up there isn't evidence of that fact.
- manigandham 7y agoYou contradicted yourself in your own post. If there's no evidence that they're dumping it in the ocean then what exactly are the US companies supposedly aware of? The fact is that US companies are paying for a disposal service. What that disposal service does is up to them, and if they just throw in the water then it's their fault alone. Maybe there should be some regulations there to ensure recycling companies actually do some recycling.
- gmiller123456 7y ago>what exactly are the US companies supposedly aware of? That it's not being recycled.
- parksy 7y agoPlastic waste per person is a different story. https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution USA: 0.34kg per person per day China: 0.12kg per person per day (just under a third of the US figure). In cultural terms, China is already far ahead of the USA in terms of individual responsibility. ---- Edit: Though your point on the handling of waste itself still stands (at least according to 2010 figures)
- forrestthewoods 7y ago> China is already far ahead of the USA in terms of individual responsibility. I would not call it individual responsibility. It’s called poverty.