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River plastic emissions to the world’s oceans
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Researchers built a global model to estimate how much plastic waste enters the ocean from rivers, combining data on waste management, population density, and water flow patterns. They estimated that rivers deliver between 1.15 and 2.41 million tonnes of plastic to the oceans annually, with over 74% of emissions occurring between May and October. The top 20 polluting rivers, mostly in Asia, accounted for 67% of the global total, providing key data for targeting cleanup and prevention efforts.
Plastics in the marine environment have become a major concern because of their persistence at sea, and adverse consequences to marine life and potentially human health. Implementing mitigation strategies requires an understanding and quantification of marine plastic sources, taking spatial and temporal variability into account. Here we present a global model of plastic inputs from rivers into oceans based on waste management, population density and hydrological information. Our model is calibrated against measurements available in the literature. We estimate that between 1.15 and 2.41 million tonnes of plastic waste currently enters the ocean every year from rivers, with over 74% of emissions occurring between May and October. The top 20 polluting rivers, mostly located in Asia, account for 67% of the global total. The findings of this study provide baseline data for ocean plastic mass balance exercises, and assist in prioritizing future plastic debris monitoring and mitigation strategies.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.