Plastic Pollution in the World's Oceans

Plastic Pollution in the World's Oceans: More than 5 Trillion Plastic Pieces Weighing over 250,000 Tons Afloat at Sea.

A paper published in Science today on the estimation of mass of land-based plastic waste entering the ocean by linking worldwide data on solid waste, population density, and economic status. It is estimated that 275 million metric tons (MT) of plastic waste was generated in 192 coastal countries in 2010, with 4.8 to 12.7 million MT entering the ocean. Population size and the quality of waste management systems largely determine which countries contribute the greatest mass of uncaptured waste available to become plastic marine debris. Without waste management infrastructure improvements, the cumulative quantity of plastic waste available to enter the ocean from land is predicted to increase by an order of magnitude by 2025.

More information in the Report published in Science: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768.abstract

source of the graph:http://news.uga.edu/documents/infographic-final.pdf