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I think you may want to reexamine things. What you describe is just about the last cause for concern about ocean plastic pollution. You should look into it a bi

I think you may want to reexamine things. What you describe is just about the last cause for concern about ocean plastic pollution. You should look into it a bit. Of the supposed total 5.25 Trillion pieces of plastic or 269,000 tons in the ocean[1], apparently 90% of that comes from 9 rivers, 7 in Asia and 2 in Africa[2]. And the rest of the world, essentially all of the Americas including the immensely plastic polluting central American rivers, Australia, and all of Europe only contribute 10% of ocean plastic pollution. [1] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/06/90-of-plastic-polluting-our-oceans-comes-from-just-10-rivers/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/06/90-of-plastic-polluti... [2] 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...

ceejayoz 6y ago
> And the rest of the world, essentially all of the Americas including the immensely plastic polluting central American rivers, Australia, and all of Europe only contribute 10% of ocean plastic pollution. That's probably not entirely fair, given that the west exports their recycling overseas. https://theconversation.com/heres-what-happens-to-our-plastic-recycling-when-it-goes-offshore-110356 https://theconversation.com/heres-what-happens-to-our-plasti... > Since then Southeast Asia has become the new destination for Australia’s recycled plastics, with 80-87% going to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Other countries have also begun to accept Australia’s plastics, including the Philippines and Myanmar. https://www.npr.org/2019/08/20/750864036/u-s-recycling-industry-is-struggling-to-figure-out-a-future-without-china https://www.npr.org/2019/08/20/750864036/u-s-recycling-indus... > The U.S. used to send a lot of its plastic waste to China to get recycled. But last year, China put the kibosh on imports of the world's waste. The policy, called National Sword, freaked out people in the U.S. — a huge market for plastic waste had just dried up. It was a pretty open secret that it frequently just wound up dumped by unscrupulous companies that claimed to be processing it.

ceejayoz 6y ago

> And the rest of the world, essentially all of the Americas including the immensely plastic polluting central American rivers, Australia, and all of Europe only contribute 10% of ocean plastic pollution. That's probably not entirely fair, given that the west exports their recycling overseas. https://theconversation.com/heres-what-happens-to-our-plastic-recycling-when-it-goes-offshore-110356 https://theconversation.com/heres-what-happens-to-our-plasti... > Since then Southeast Asia has become the new destination for Australia’s recycled plastics, with 80-87% going to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Other countries have also begun to accept Australia’s plastics, including the Philippines and Myanmar. https://www.npr.org/2019/08/20/750864036/u-s-recycling-industry-is-struggling-to-figure-out-a-future-without-china https://www.npr.org/2019/08/20/750864036/u-s-recycling-indus... > The U.S. used to send a lot of its plastic waste to China to get recycled. But last year, China put the kibosh on imports of the world's waste. The policy, called National Sword, freaked out people in the U.S. — a huge market for plastic waste had just dried up. It was a pretty open secret that it frequently just wound up dumped by unscrupulous companies that claimed to be processing it.