What is Marine Debris ?

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, marine debris is any persistent solid material that is manufactured or processed and directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, disposed of or abandoned into the marine environment or the Great Lakes.

The world’s oceans are clogged with plastic debris, but how much of it lingers into the seas each year? Enough to place the equivalent of five grocery bags filled with plastic thrash on every foot (30 cm) of every nation’s coastline around the globe (Dunham, 2015). Environmental scientists say China and Indonesia are the top sources of plastic garbage that gets to our oceans, they account for over a third of the plastic bottles, bags and other debris washed out to the seas.

China was responsible for the most oceanic plastic pollution per year with an estimated 2.4 million tons, bout 30% of the global total, followed by Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Egypt, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Bangladesh (Dunham, 2015). The United States was the only rich industrialized nation in the top 20, and it ranked Number 20 (Dunham, 2015).

It might be surprising to some to spot the U.S. in that list, given that it has a very sophisticated and highly developed garbage collection system. Two reasons explain why the U.S. made the top 20: As a wealthy nation, it is a large consumer of diverse products, and secondly, it has a large, dense coastal population.

Figure 1: Top Ten Sources of Oceanic Plastic Waste

Source: (Parker, Eight Million Tons of Plastic Dumped in Ocean Every Year, 2015)

The rankings in the chart reflect the largest total amounts of plastic waste flowing into the oceans annually, not the highest per capita amounts[1]. For example, Bangladesh ranks 10^th overall, with 867,879 tons, but 187^th per capita, at 346 pounds per person. Denmark ranks 143^rd overall with 1,974 tons, but 19^th per capita, at 1,883 pounds per person[2].

References

Dunham, W. (2015, February 13). World's oceans clogged by millions of tons of plastic trash. Retrieved May 21, 2015, from in.reuters.com: http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/02/12/science-oceans-idINL1N0VL1IF20150212

History of Plastics. (2015). Retrieved May 21, 2015, from SPI - The Plastics Industry Trade Association: www.plasticsindustry.org

Knight, L. (2014, May 17). A Brief History of plastics, natural and synthetic. Retrieved May 16, 2015, from British Broadcasting Corporation - BBC: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27442625

Lytle, C. L. (2015). When The Mermaids Cry: The Great Plastic Tide. Retrieved April 15, 2015, from Plastic Pollution: http://plastic-pollution.org/

North, E., & Rolf, H. (2014). Plastics and Environmental Health: The Road Ahead. Reviews on Environmental Health, 28(1), 1-8. doi:10.1515/reveh-2012-0030

Parker, L. (2015, February 13). Eight Million Tons of Plastic Dumped in Ocean Every Year. Retrieved May 21, 2015, from National Geographic: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/02/150212-ocean-debris-plastic-garbage-patches-science/

PlasticsEurope. (2015). What is plastic? Retrieved May 13, 2015, from PlasticsEurope: http://www.plasticseurope.org/what-is-plastic.aspx

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[1] NG Staff; J. L. Wang, Source Science

[2] NG Staff; J. L. Wang, Source Science