Study Finds Rising Levels of Plastics in Oceans - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/science/earth/plastic-ocean-waste-levels-going-up-study-says.html?_r=2[17/04/2015 08:42:39 a.m.]

Some eight million metric tons of plastic waste makes its way into theworld’s oceans each year, and the amount of the debris is likely toincrease greatly over the next decade unless nations take strongmeasures to dispose of their trash responsibly, new research suggests.

By JOHN SCHWARTZ FEB. 12, 2015

ENVIRONMENT

Indian fishermen pushed their boat through plastic waste last month in Mumbai. Punit Paranjpe/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Study Finds Rising Levels of Plastics in Oceans - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/science/earth/plastic-ocean-waste-levels-going-up-study-says.html?_r=2[17/04/2015 08:42:39 a.m.]

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The report, which appeared in the journal Science on Thursday, is themost ambitious effort yet to estimate how much plastic debris ends upin the sea.

Jenna Jambeck, an assistant professor of environmental engineering atthe University of Georgia and lead author of the study, said the amountof plastic that entered the oceans in the year measured, 2010, might beas little as 4.8 million metric tons or as much as 12.7 million.

The paper’s middle figure of eight million, she said, is the equivalent of“five plastic grocery bags filled with plastic for every foot of coastline inthe world” — a visualization that, she said, “sort of blew my mind.”

By 2025, she said, the amount ofplastic projected to be entering theoceans would constitute theequivalent of 10 bags per foot ofcoastline.

The researchers, from the UnitedStates and Australia, derived theirestimates through a complexcalculation that began with theoverall mass of waste produced perperson annually in 192 nations thathave coastlines, worked throughthe proportion of that waste likely to be plastic, and how much of theplastic could end up in the ocean because of each nation’s wastemanagement practices. The researchers then projected the amount ofwaste going forward based on population growth estimates.

“This is a significant study,” said Nancy Wallace, director of the marinedebris program at the National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration, who saw the paper before it was published.

Ms. Wallace applauded what she considered the sophisticated use ofavailable data to estimate the amount of plastic entering the marineenvironment, both collectively and country by country. “Of course weknow these aren’t absolute numbers, but it gives us an idea of themagnitude, and where we might need to focus our efforts to affect theissue,” she said.

The research also lists the world’s 20 worst plastic polluters, fromChina to the United States, based on such factors as size of coastalpopulation and national plastic production.

According to the estimate, China tops the list, producing as much as

Study Finds Rising Levels of Plastics in Oceans - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/science/earth/plastic-ocean-waste-levels-going-up-study-says.html?_r=2[17/04/2015 08:42:39 a.m.]

3.5 million metric tons of marine debris each year. The United States,which generates as much as 110,000 metric tons of marine debris ayear, came in at No. 20.

While Americans generate 2.6 kilograms of waste per person per day,or 5.7 pounds, to China’s 1.10 kilograms, the United States rankedlower on the list because of its more efficient waste management,Professor Jambeck said.

Plastics have been spotted in the oceans since the 1970s. In theintervening decades, masses of junk have been observed floating whereocean currents come together, and debris can be found on the remotestbeaches and in arctic sea ice.

The problem is more than an aesthetic one: Exposed to saltwater andsun, and the jostling of the surf, the debris shreds into tiny pieces thatbecome coated with toxic substances like PCBs and other pollutants.

Research into the marine food chain suggests that fish and otherorganisms consume the bite-size particles and may reabsorb the toxicsubstances. Those fish are eaten by other fish, and by people.

Cleaning up the plastic once it is in the oceans is impractical; only aportion of it floats, while most disappears, and presumably what doesnot wash ashore settles to the bottom.

Any collection system fine enough to capture the smaller particleswould also pick up enormous amounts of marine life. So the bestoption, Professor Jambeck and others suggest, is to improve wastemanagement ashore.

But prodding developing countries to spend money on wastemanagement is difficult, she acknowledged. “You’ve got criticalinfrastructure needs first, like clean drinking water,” she said. “It’s kindof easy to push waste to the side.”

Over the years she has pursued this line of research, Professor Jambecksaid, she has seen a strong, even visceral response from the public.

“You can see waste,” she said. “Not that people want to.”

A version of this article appears in print on February 13, 2015, on page A4 of the New York editionwith the headline: Study Finds Rising Levels of Plastics in Oceans. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe