CHINA TOPIX

12/22/2024 07:03:41 pm

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China Produces 30% of All Plastic Pollution in the Oceans

Plastic garbage

Massive plastic pollution floating along a coast.

The planet's oceans are brimming with plastic debris and garbage that are clogging up coastlines everywhere.

Apparently, there's so much plastic garbage in the oceans it can fill five grocery bags for every foot found in all coastline cities around the world.

Scientists have found there's an estimated eight million metric tons of plastic pollution that flood the oceans every year in 192 coastal nations.

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Since garbage increases every year, there's an estimated nine million tons of it that could end up in the oceans as early as this year.

Experts have repeatedly warned that plastic pollution can endanger and kill seabirds, marine mammals and sea turtles, along with other different marine animal species. Plastic pollution is a grave threat to the oceans' biodiversity and ecosystems.

China is the leading cause of this plastic pollution in the oceans, dumping an estimated 2.4 million tons every year. This accounts for 30 percent of all global plastic pollution.

This is followed by other coastal countries from Southeast Asia such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia and Bangaldesh in West Asia and Egypt and Nigeria in Africa.

The U.S. was ranked 20th, which makes it the only rich, industrialized country to enter the top 20. All EU nations combined rank 18th.

This trash floating on the oceans consist of all kinds of plastics imaginable. There are also shopping bags, food wrappers, cigarette butts, bottles, and even toys, buckets and toilet seats.

Any kind of plastic trash is bound to be found somewhere in a marine environment, according to Kara Lavender Law, a professor of oceanography from the Sea Education Association.

These findings were based on data gathered from the World Bank. This data includes trash generated by each person from all the coastline nations; the nation's population density; how much plastic waste it produces and the quality of waste management in those countries.

Researchers have calculated that 275 million tons of plastic waste was produced in 192 coastal nations, with eight million tons entering the oceans.

This study was published in the journal, Science.

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