SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) 鈥� Every year, about 8.8 million tons of plastic ends up in the world’s oceans.
That’s according to a new study that tracks marine debris from its source. The authors say it’s the equivalent of five grocery bags full of plastic debris, dotting every foot of coastline around the world.
The amount is much higher than previous estimates.
The main author of the study is environment engineering professor Jenna Jambeck of the University of Georgia. She says if the biggest polluters — mostly developing countries in Asia — don’t make changes in how they throw stuff away, the total accumulated plastic trash in the ocean will reach about 170 million tons a decade from now.
More than half of the plastic waste that flows into the oceans comes from just five countries: China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. The only industrialized western country on the list of top 20 plastic polluters is the United States at No. 20.
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APPHOTO WX301: Jenna Jambeck, an environment engineering professor at the University of Georgia, holds a plastic baggie with trash collected last fall from a clean up at Panama Beach, Fla., Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015, at the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) conference in San Jose, Calif. Each year about 8.8 million tons of plastic ends up in the world oceans, a quantity much higher than previous estimates, according to a new study that tracked marine debris from its source. (AP Photo/Seth Borenstein) (12 Feb 2015)
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