Global macroplastic ocean pollution by source

An estimated 9.8 million metric tons of macroplastics were leaked to oceans in 2016. Approximately 61 percent of this total came from uncollected waste, mainly through direct discards to water. Meanwhile mismanaged waste contributed 39 percent to total leakage, with 1.2 million metric tons leaked from dumpsites.
An estimated 91 million metric tons of mismanaged plastic waste is generated annually worldwide. If there are no changes to plastic-related waste treatment in the future, such as through policies, materials, or consumer behavior, annual mismanaged plastic waste generation could almost triple by 2040.

Estimated quantity of macroplastic leakage to the ocean in 2016, by route (in million metric tons)

Characteristic	Terrestrial leakage to ocean	Direct discard to water (uncollected)	Direct discard to water (post collection)	Leakage from dumpsites	Total leakage (macroplastic only)
Uncollected	2	4	-	-	-
Post-collection mismanaged	-	-	2.6	1.2	-
Total leakage	-	-	-	-	9.8

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Release date

October 2020

More information

Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

2016

Supplementary notes

The source adds the following information: "This graphic reflects our estimate of how much macroplastic enters the ocean through different routes (and excludes microplastics). These numbers have high uncertainty and are highly sensitive to model inputs."

Macroplastics are pieces of plastic larger than five millimeters in size.

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