10/06/2021
https://www.facebook.com/1977102099010584/posts/4062644110456362/
PHILIPPINE RIVERS DOMINATED THE GLOBAL TOP 10 LIST OF LARGEST PLASTIC EMITTING RIVERS!🇵🇭
About 80% of the world's ocean plastics enter via rivers. The Philippines alone contribute about 1/3 of the global total - much higher than those coming from the continents of Africa, North America, South America, Europe, and Oceania combined!
In tackling ocean plastic pollution, we need to know where they are coming from and what are factors playing a role in their transport from settlements to oceans. The newly released study of Meijer et al. (2021), entitled "More than 1000 rivers account for 80% of global riverine plastic emissions into the ocean," highlighted the following points:
🔹Rivers contributed 0.8-2.7 million tons of plastic into the oceans. Of the 100,000 rivers included in the study, only 1/3 actually contributed to it - with the remaining 2/3 emitted almost no plastic to the ocean!
🔹The research suggested that smaller rivers played a much larger role than previously thought - with 1,656 rivers contribute 80% of plastic inputs to the ocean. This differs from previous studies showing that only 5 rivers (Schmidt et al., 2017) or 162 rivers (Lebreton et al., 2017) contributed the 80%
🔹Most of the world’s largest emitting rivers are in Asia, where about 81% of the ocean plastics are emitted. The Philippines, the top-emitting country, alone contributes around 36.4% of the world's total - much higher than the most populous countries (China - 7% and India - 13%)!
🔹Seven out of the 10 top-emitting rivers are from the Philippines, with Pasig River alone contributing 6.4% of global river plastics - higher than the contribution of North America (5.4%), Europe (0.6%), and Oceania (0.37%) combined. This deviates from the previous expectations that large rivers, such as the Yangtze, contribute the most.
🔹The study highlighted some important factors determining how the top-emitting rivers contribute more than the others: (1) they are from areas with poor local waste management practices, (2) they have cities nearby, (3) experience more rainfall, and (4) the cities themselves are near the coast.
🔹Though richer countries produce much more plastic waste per person than poorer countries, the probability of having more plastics draining into the ocean is affected by the climate, geographical setting, and local waste management practices.
In summary, this study showed the importance of having a global approach in tackling the world's ocean plastic pollution. Focusing mitigation strategies in richer countries won't make much difference because their ocean plastic inputs are low. Instead, they should help poorer countries in improving waste management facilities and practices. Furthermore, we must speed up our shift to more sustainable alternatives to plastics - because, in the end, the problems will just continue circulating and worsen if we won't make drastic actions.
See their interactive map here: https://theoceancleanup.com/
REFERENCES:
[1] Meijer, J.J.L, Emmerik, T., Ent, R., Schmidt, C., Lebreton, L. (2021). More than 1000 rivers account for 80% of global riverine plastic emissions into the ocean. Science Advances, 7(18). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz5803
[2] Ritchie, H. (2021). Where does the plastic in our oceans come from?. OurWorldInData. Retrieved from: https://ourworldindata.org/ocean-plastics
