An international team led by Stephanie Borrelle estimated how much plastic waste enters all aquatic environments, including rivers and lakes as well as the ocean, and tested whether announced government and industry commitments could contain it.
They found that 19–23 million tonnes of plastic, about 11% of all plastic waste generated, entered aquatic ecosystems in 2016. Even if governments meet their ambitious current commitments, this could reach 20–53 million tonnes a year by 2030. The commitments made so far are not enough to stop it growing.
This is the recommended headline figure for 'plastic entering the water' because it is more recent than Jambeck 2015 and includes freshwater. It works out to roughly 36–44 tonnes every minute.
It is often quoted without the qualifier 'aquatic'. The figure covers rivers and lakes as well as the sea, which is why it is much larger than ocean-only estimates.