Hundreds of thousands of metric tons of plastic are produced worldwide yearly. Whereas half of this plastic waste is recycled, incinerated, or discarded into landfills, a good portion of what stays finally leads to our oceans.

The truth is, many items of ocean plastic waste have come collectively to create a vortex of plastic waste thrice the scale of France within the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii.

The place does all of this plastic come from? On this graphic, Visible Capitalist’s Freny Fernandes and Louis Lugas Wicaksono used information from a analysis paper by Lourens J.J. Meijer and workforce to spotlight the highest 10 international locations emitting plastic pollution within the waters surrounding them.

Plastic’s Ocean Voyage

First, let’s speak about how this plastic waste reaches the oceans within the first place.

Many of the plastic waste discovered within the deep blue waters comes from the litter in parks, seashores, or alongside the storm drains lining our streets. These bits of plastic waste are carried into our drains, streams, and rivers by wind and rainwater runoff.

The rivers then flip into plastic superhighways, transporting the plastic to the oceans.

A big further chunk of ocean plastic comes from broken fishing nets or ghost nets which might be straight discarded into the excessive seas.

International locations Feeding the Plastic Downside

Some would possibly suppose that the international locations producing or consuming essentially the most plastic are those that pollute the oceans essentially the most. However that’s not true.

In accordance with the examine, international locations with a smaller geographical space, longer coastlines, excessive rainfall, and poor waste administration programs usually tend to wash plastics into the ocean.

For instance, China generates 10 instances the plastic waste that Malaysia does. Nonetheless, 9% of Malaysia’s complete plastic waste is estimated to succeed in the ocean, compared to China’s 0.6%.

The Philippines—an archipelago of over 7,000 islands, with a 36,289 kilometer shoreline and 4,820 plastic emitting rivers—is estimated to emit 35% of the ocean’s plastic.

Along with the Philippines, over 75% of the gathered plastic within the ocean is reported to come back from the mismanaged waste in Asian international locations together with India, Malaysia, China, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Thailand.

The one non-Asian nation to make it to this high 10 listing, with 1,240 rivers together with the Amazon, is Brazil.

The Path to a Plastic-free Ocean

The primary, and most evident, strategy to cut back plastic accumulation is to cut back using plastic. Lesser manufacturing equals lesser waste.

The second step is managing the plastic waste generated, and that is the place the problem lies.

Many high-income international locations generate excessive quantities of plastic waste, however are both higher at processing it or exporting it to different international locations. In the meantime, lots of the middle-income and low-income international locations that each demand plastics and obtain bulk exports have but to develop the infrastructure wanted to course of it.