ksen, M., Lebreton, L. C., Carso

2021/05/21

Eriksen, M., Lebreton, L. C., Carson, H. S., Thiel, M., Moore, C. J., Borerro, J. C., & Reisser, J. Plastic waste breakdown by polymer type can be found here. Available at:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045653517311724. This is given in cumulative million tonnes.

Available at:https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-16510-3_13. 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. Packaging, for example, has a very short in-use lifetime (typically around 6 months or less).

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 distribution of plastic inputs is reflected on the world map. 2013. China has been increasing restrictions on its plastic waste imports since 2007. Not all mismanaged plastic waste has the same probability that it reaches river networks, and then the ocean. NOAA-TM-NMFS-SWFC-54. Ocean. Science, 347(6223), 768-771. This is crucial, not only in understanding the scale of the problem but in implementing the most effective interventions for reduction. Primary plastic production by polymer type can be found here. Plastic fibres have also been detected in other food items; for example, honey, beer and table salt.57,58,59 But the authors suggested negligible health risks as a result of this exposure. The reported land area of Spain is approximately 500,000 square kilometres, and Alaska is an estimated 1.5 million square kilometres. In coastal regions most macroplastics (79%) are recent less than 5 years old. Available at:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468584417300235. & Gorokhova, E. The effects of natural and anthropogenic microparticles on individual fitness in Daphnia magna. Available at:http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155063. Liebezeit, G., & Liebezeit, E. (2013). 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. The inclusive event provides an opportunity to celebrate the, UNEP Terms of Use PrivacyReport Project Concern Report Scam Contact Us. Available at: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0111913. One proposed sink for ocean plastics was deep-sea sediments; a study which sampled deep-sea sediments across several basins found that microplastic was up to four orders of magnitude more abundant (per unit volume) in deep-sea sediments from the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean than in plastic-polluted surface waters.23But, new research may suggest a third explanation: that plastics in the ocean break down slower than previously thought, and that much of the missing plastic is washed up or buried in our shorelines.24. Around 52 percent of plastics originated from fishing activity and included fishing lines, nets and ropes; a further 47 percent was sourced from hard plastics, sheets and films; and the remaining components were small in comparison (just under one percent). The Chinese import ban and its impact on global plastic waste trade. More than 1000 rivers account for 80% of global riverine plastic emissions into the ocean.

1985. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22939-w. Cressey, D. (2016).

There are three key pathways by which plastic debris can affect wildlife28: Entanglement the entrapping, encircling or constricting of marine animals by plastic debris. (2018) attempted to quantify the characteristics of the GPGP.15, The vast majority of GPGP material is plastics trawling samples indicate an estimated 99.9 percent of all floating debris. Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health,1, 17-23. There we see each countrys share of global plastic emissions. Science, 347(6223), 768-771. This is shown for two categories of plastics: shown in blue are macroplastics (larger plastic materials greater than 0.5 centimeters in diameter) and shown in red microplastics (smaller particles less than 0.5 centimeters). To which industries and product uses is primary plastic production allocated? This also matters for how we solve the problem of ocean pollution. By 2030, its estimated that around 110 million tonnes of plastic will be displaced as a result of the ban. Yet it emits 100 times as much plastic to the ocean each year (200 to 300 tonnes versus only 3 to 5 tonnes). The authors suggest this means plastic pollution can be moved between oceanic gyres and basins much more readily than previously assumed. The Ciliwung River emits much more plastic to the ocean, despite being much smaller because the basins waste is generated very close to the river (meaning the plastic gets into the river network in the first place) and the river network is also much closer to the ocean. Available at:http://www.fao.org/docrep/011/i0620e/i0620e00.htm. How much plastic has the world produced cumulatively? How has global plastic waste disposal method changed over time? plastics recycling canada bottles reaches record rate water containers orem Marine pollution bulletin,92(1-2), 170-179. marine pollutants ocean guide human health toxic threats invisible document ipen toxics threat report addresses menace chemical dual This can ultimately lead to death. You have permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited. Freshwater makes up only 2 per cent of all water. Chemosphere,186, 10-16. At the end of that year China introduced a complete ban on the imports of non-industrial plastic waste.68. This means there is a large amount of mismanaged plastic waste that can enter rivers and the ocean in the first place. Synthetic particles as contaminants in German beers. The amount of plastic in surface waters is not very well known: estimates range from 10,000s to 100,000s tonnes. Inadequately managed waste has high risk of polluting rivers and oceans. Over recent decades, the authors report there has been an exponential increase in concentration of surface plastics in the GPGP. Microplastic ingestion rarely causes mortality in any organisms. Incineration: a method waste treatment which involves the burning of material at very high temperatures. This paints a very different picture to earlier studies where it was Asias largest rivers the Yangtze, Xi, and Huangpu rivers in China, and Ganges in India that were dominant. Li, W. C., Tse, H. F., & Fok, L. (2016). Note that this at least an order of magnitude lower than estimated inputs of plastics to the ocean; the discrepancy here relates to a surprising, but long-standing question in the research literature on plastics: where is the missing plastic going?. There is often intense debate about the relative importance of marine and land sources for ocean pollution. The trade-offs between plastics and substitutes (or complete bans) are therefore complex and could create negative knock-on impacts on the environment. Oliveira, M., Ribeiro, A., Hylland, K. & Guilhermino, L. Single and combined effects of microplastics and pyrene on juveniles (0+ group) of the common goby Pomatoschistus microps (Teleostei, Gobiidae). Which countries produce the most total plastic waste? Mismanaged waste could eventually enter the ocean via inland waterways, wastewater outflows, and transport by wind or tides.72, Plastic particles are typically grouped into categories depending on their size (as measured by their diameter). Microplastic pollution in table salts from China. 185. There macroplastics from several decades ago even as far back as the 1950s and 1960s persist. Approximately 7 billion of the 9.2 billion tonnes of plastic produced from 1950-2017 became plastic waste, ending up in landfills or dumped. Watts, A. J. R., Urbina, M. A., Corr, S., Lewis, C. & Galloway, T. S. Ingestion of plastic microfibers by the crab Carcinus maenas and its effect on food consumption and energy balance. There is, currently, very little evidence of the impact that microplastics can have on humans.

Which countries emit the most plastic into the oceans? To date, there has been no clear evidence of the accumulation of persistent organic pollutants or leached plastic additives in humans. Their results suggest that macroplastics can persist for decades; can be buried and resurfaced along shorelines; and end up in offshore regions years later. Galloway, T. S., Cole, M., & Lewis, C. (2017). They therefore do not represent quantities of plastic at risk of loss to the ocean or other waterways. Entanglement cases have been reported for at least 344 species to date, including all marine turtle species, more than two-thirds of seal species, one-third of whale species, and one-quarter of seabirds.29 Entanglement by 89 species of fish and 92 species of invertebrates has also been recorded. Gven, O., Gkda, K., Jovanovi, B., & Kdey, A. E. (2017). As we see, Hong Kong typically acts as an entry point for Chinese imports; it is therefore the largest exporting country to China. Continued research in this area is important to better understand the role of plastic within broader ecosystems and risk to human health. Cedervall T, Hansson LA, Lard M, Frohm B, Linse S. 2012. There a number of potential effects of microplastics at different biological levels, which range from sub-cellular to ecosystems, but most research has focused on impacts in individual adult organisms. Fourth, distance matters: the largest emitting rivers had cities nearby and were also very close to the coast.

All of our charts can be embedded in any site. The data produced by third parties and made available by Our World in Data is subject to the license terms from the original third-party authors. (2014). This is because the Philippines consists of many small islands where the majority of the population lives near the coast. 39, 2017). Around 20% of all plastic waste in the oceans comes from marine sources. (2015). Plastic pollution in the worlds oceans: more than 5 trillion plastic pieces weighing over 250,000 tons afloat at sea. In the chart we see the quantity of plastic exported to China from the top 10 exporting countries. Law, K. L. (2017).

After entry to oceans from coastal regions, plastics tend to migrate towards the centre of ocean basins. It also gets much more rainfall meaning the plastic waste is more easily transported than in the Rhine basin. Mismanaged waste is material which is at high risk of entering the ocean via wind or tidal transport, or carried to coastlines from inland waterways. It also helps if we understandwhythese rivers emit so much. Galloway T.S. 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. Plastic in our oceans can arise from both land-based or marine sources. Considering the lack of coastal populations and plastic inputs in the Southern Hemisphere, this was an unexpected result. As heatwaves blanket Europe, cities turn to nature for solutions, Island nations get new lifeline to beat pollution, Inside the Clean Seas campaign against microplastics, What you need to know about the plastic pollution resolution, Life Cycle Initiative 2002-2022: Speeding up the transition to Sustainable consumption and production with Life Cycle Approaches, Bridges to Lisbon: The 2022 United Nations Ocean Conference, What you need to know about the global resolution on sustainable lake management. Annual review of marine science,9, 205-229. 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. Springer, Cham. Plastic pollution is a global problem. Geyer, R., Jambeck, J. R., & Law, K. L. (2017). PLoS ONE,11, e0155063 (2016). How can a life-cycle approach curb the plastic pollution crisis? In the chart we see the quantity of plastic waste China had to manage over the period from 2010 to 2016. Plastic in north sea fish. Available at:http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/7/e1700782. cumulative production of polymers, synthetic fibers and additives was 8300 million tonnes; 2500 million tonnes (30 percent) of primary plastics was still in use in 2015; 4600 million tonnes (55 percent) went straight to landfill or was discarded; 700 million tonnes (8 percent) was incinerated; 500 million tonnes (6 percent) was recycled (100 million tonnes of recycled plastic was still in use; 100 million tonnes was later incinerated; and 300 million tonnes was later discarded or sent to landfill). This overview is summarized in the figure.2. Which oceans have the most plastic waste? The authors of the study illustrate the importance of the additional climate, basin terrain, and proximity factors with a real-life example. First, plastic pollution is dominant where the local waste management practices are poor. In 2015, an estimated 55 percent of global plastic waste was discarded, 25 percent was incinerated, and 20 percent recycled. 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. This article was first published in September 2018. This is in contrast to building and construction, where plastic use has a mean lifetime of 35 years.7.