Recently, an article entitled "Plastic Waste Input by Rivers into the Ocean" published by the journal "Environmental Science and Technology" pointed out that the plastic pollution in the rivers is related to the improper management of the plastic waste in the river basins, and the better Plastic waste management can significantly reduce the amount of plastic waste entering the ocean.
Terrestrial sources are considered to be the main source of marine plastic garbage and rivers can be the major transport route for plastic waste of all sizes.The plastic content and concentration in rivers depend on the characteristics of the catchment.The urban land use and population density have been shown to be associated with plastics However, the available data and knowledge base are still not enough to link the sources, transport routes and ultimate fate of plastic wastes in marine and freshwater environments to fill gaps in knowledge to assess plastic pollution in the water environment and to develop Effective pollution prevention strategies are essential.Studies from the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Studies in Germany analyzed research articles on river plastic garbage data to determine plastic concentrations and levels and to estimate the amount of plastic that enters the ocean from the river.The study involved 79 sampling points for 57 rivers around the world.
The researchers combined the plastic concentration in the river with the amount of ill-managed plastic waste (MMPW) found in the catchment and found that the plastic waste content is positively correlated with the MMPW produced in the river catchment, a non-linear, populous catchment Of the large rivers, MMPW accounted for a higher proportion of the world's plastic content of the 10 largest rivers, the plastic content of the global plastics accounted for 88% to 95% .With MMPW as a predictor, researchers estimate that the global annual from Due to the limited amount of data, the estimation results are highly uncertain, and the researchers believe that if the plastics in the 10 rivers (eight in Asia) A 50% reduction in pollution may reduce the total contribution of all rivers by 45%.