Clothes washing and tyre wear are the biggest sources of ocean microplastics
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates 1.5 million tonnes of primary microplastics reach the ocean each year, over a third from synthetic…
Oceans and rivers
-
-
Plastic bottles and caps overtake cigarette butts as the top beach litter
Ocean Conservancy’s 40th International Coastal Cleanup logged 1.3 million plastic bottles and 886,000 caps in a single year.
-
Nine in ten seabirds have eaten plastic; 99% of species will by 2050
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) modelling of decades of seabird studies found plastic ingestion is global, pervasive and rising fast.
-
A single piece of plastic gives a sea turtle a one-in-five chance of death
Post-mortem data from Queensland, Australia, show that eating just 14 pieces of plastic gives a turtle a 50% chance of dying.
-
914 marine species are known to have swallowed or been tangled in plastic
The definitive species count for plastic ingestion and entanglement has more than tripled since 1997.
-
Plastic touching coral raises disease risk from 4% to 89%
A survey of 124,000 corals across the Asia-Pacific found plastic debris multiplies the chance of coral disease more than twenty-fold.
-
Only 9% of all plastic ever made has been recycled
The first global accounting of every plastic ever produced found that most of it is already waste and almost none was recycled.
-
The origin of the ‘8 million tonnes into the ocean’ figure
Jambeck’s landmark 2015 estimate found 4.8–12.7 million tonnes of land-based plastic entered the ocean in 2010; it is often wrongly quoted as a current…
-
56 companies are responsible for more than half of branded plastic litter
Five years of brand audits across 84 countries show a few consumer-goods giants dominate plastic pollution, and pollution rises in step with production.
-
UN Environment Programme (UNEP): plastic pollution could be cut 80% by 2040 with existing technology
The UN’s Turning off the Tap report shows reuse, recycling and material substitution could slash plastic pollution and save trillions.