Where the World’s Ocean Plastic Waste Comes From

Where the World’s Ocean Plastic Waste Comes From

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In the past decade, plastic pollution has become one of the most visible environmental issues worldwide. Every year, millions of tonnes of plastic enter the ocean, affecting marine life, coastal communities, and ecosystems.

This visualization ranks the countries responsible for the highest cumulative leakage of mismanaged plastic waste that escaped and washed up on other countries’ beaches from 2010 to 2019. The data for this visualization comes from the Global Plastic Hub.

Asia Leads in Ocean Plastic Leakage

China is the largest contributor, responsible for over 2.6 million tonnes of plastic waste that ended up on foreign beaches. It’s followed by the Philippines (1.7 million tonnes), and India (966,000 tonnes). Rapid economic growth, urbanization, and inadequate waste management systems contribute to these high figures.

Seven of the top 10 countries on the list are in Asia, underlining the region’s central role in the global ocean plastic crisis.

Rank	Country	Tonnes (2010-2019)
1	China	2,683,631
2	Philippines	1,695,260
3	India	966,447
4	Brazil	639,665
5	Indonesia	599,020
6	Nigeria	496,841
7	Viet Nam	484,457
8	Turkey	354,441
9	Thailand	338,685
10	Malaysia	332,756
11	Bangladesh	315,755
12	Venezuela	231,132
13	Bird Island	231,132
14	Myanmar	209,495
15	Egypt	208,321
16	Algeria	157,952
17	Tanzania	114,737
18	Ghana	107,907
19	Taiwan, Province of China	97,418
20	Uruguay	94,544
21	Tunisia	89,176
22	Haiti	84,238
23	Dominican Republic	83,121
24	Libya	73,477
25	Mozambique	72,578
26	Cameroon	67,709
27	Côte d’Ivoire	57,394
28	Pakistan	53,641
29	Angola	52,877
30	Colombia	47,506
31	Morocco	44,087
32	Sri Lanka	41,648
33	Peru	39,863
34	Papua New Guinea	36,165
35	Yemen	35,625
36	Trinidad and Tobago	35,244
37	Benin	32,298
38	Togo	31,773
39	Mexico	31,004
40	South Africa	30,352
41	Ecuador	29,678
42	Solomon Islands	27,939
43	Honduras	26,859
44	Greece	25,983
45	Ukraine	25,859
46	Guinea	25,167
47	Comoros	24,691
48	Sierra Leone	23,826
49	Hong Kong, China	23,471
50	Russian Federation	20,770
51	Senegal	19,569
52	Lebanon	19,420
53	Guatemala	19,015
54	Albania	18,501
55	U.S.	16,910
56	Panama	16,346
57	Jamaica	16,260
58	Belize	15,383
59	Guyana	15,235
60	Nicaragua	15,199
61	Liberia	14,220
62	Kuwait	12,740
63	Gambia	12,178
64	Suriname	11,589
65	Sudan	11,308
66	Guinea-Bissau	10,819
67	Iran	10,750
68	Congo	9,476
69	Democratic People’s Republic of Korea	8,873
70	Kenya	7,941
71	El Salvador	7,504
72	Netherlands	6,488
73	UK	6,242
74	Timor-Leste	6,238
75	Italy	5,930
76	Spain	5,708
77	Canary Islands (Sp.)	5,708
78	Eritrea	5,677
79	Equatorial Guinea	5,328
80	Argentina	4,847
81	Costa Rica	4,384
82	Saudi Arabia	4,099
83	Croatia	3,964
84	Djibouti	3,401
85	Japan	3,208
86	Syrian Arab Republic	3,019
87	Australia	2,920
88	Ashmore & Cartier Is.	2,920
89	Republic of Korea	2,865
90	Mauritania	2,845
91	United Arab Emirates	2,659
92	Somalia	2,371
93	Israel	2,368
94	Fiji	2,340
95	Cambodia	2,212
96	Gabon	2,199
97	Madagascar	2,132
98	Germany	1,899
99	Romania	1,825
100	Montenegro	1,804
101	Saint Lucia	1,591
102	Chile	1,447
103	Sao Tome and Principe	1,255
104	France	1,105
105	Vanuatu	997
106	Cape Verde	975
107	Qatar	868
108	Samoa	809
109	Brunei Darussalam	797
110	Portugal	702
111	Azores Islands (Port.)	702
112	Madeira Islands (Port.)	702
113	Grenada	553
114	Sweden	514
115	Ireland	508
116	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	466
117	Poland	439
118	Georgia	424
119	Canada	421
120	Dominica	408
121	Finland	397
122	Namibia	387
123	Barbados	302
124	Puerto Rico (USA)	287
125	Oman	258
126	Tonga	246
127	Latvia	211
128	Bahrain	204
129	Bahamas	179
130	Antigua and Barbuda	172
131	Micronesia	167
132	DRC	149
133	Norway	130

Plastic Waste Doesn’t Stay Local

Plastic debris often travel thousands of kilometers across oceans, carried solely by currents, wind, tides, and time. For example, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch—a massive swirling zone between California and Hawaii—accumulates plastic from as far as Asia, North America, and South America. The patch spans around 1.6 million km², comparable to twice the size of Texas.

The annual economic costs due to marine plastic pollution are estimated to be between $6-19 billion. According to the OECD, preventing land-based plastic leakage into the ocean across 38 member countries and 10 major plastic waste emitters in Asia and Africa could cost more than $86 billion.

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• Source: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/where-the-worlds-ocean-plastic-waste-comes-from/