TY - JOUR
T1 - Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean
AU - Jambeck, Jenna R.
AU - Geyer, Roland
AU - Wilcox, Chris
AU - Siegler, Theodore R.
AU - Perryman, Miriam
AU - Andrady, Anthony
AU - Narayan, Ramani
AU - Law, Kara Lavender
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved.
PY - 2015/2/13
Y1 - 2015/2/13
N2 - Plastic debris in the marine environment is widely documented, but the quantity of plastic entering the ocean from waste generated on land is unknown. By linking worldwide data on solid waste, population density, and economic status, we estimated the mass of land-based plastic waste entering the ocean. We calculate 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.
AB - Plastic debris in the marine environment is widely documented, but the quantity of plastic entering the ocean from waste generated on land is unknown. By linking worldwide data on solid waste, population density, and economic status, we estimated the mass of land-based plastic waste entering the ocean. We calculate 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84923095173&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1126/science.1260352
DO - 10.1126/science.1260352
M3 - Article
C2 - 25678662
AN - SCOPUS:84923095173
SN - 0036-8075
VL - 347
SP - 768
EP - 771
JO - Science
JF - Science
IS - 6223
ER -